Japan to the stars

The Japanese recovery is strengthening.  The latest PMI (Purchasing managers index) is higher than it's been since the GFC began, and is trending strongly upward.  The new policy of the authorities in Japan, to encourage moderate price inflation instead of deflation, is working.  Output still hasn't recovered to the previous pre-GFC peak (you can see the GFC slump in 98, and then the downward spike because of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and since January last year a sustained recovery in both industrial production and the PMI.    There is finally a sustained recovery in developed economies.

Abenomics in action

A roaring Japanese recovery.  If they can actually carry out the serious micro-economic reforms necessary, the growth will continue.

Just a reminder: this index is a diffusion index -- 50 represents the point at which negative and positive responses are exactly equal, while an index level greater than 50 indicates an expanding economy, one below 50 a contracting one.