TMCnet News
Economic assessment up for all regions on rising output, spending+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Jan. 13_(Kyodo) _ The Bank of Japan raised its economic assessment of all nine regions across the nation in a quarterly report released Friday, citing rising production and firm personal spending. The BOJ said in the January report that all nine regions are now more or less in recovery mode, compared with the October report which said the economy of the Hokkaido region alone remained flat. It is the first time for the central bank to revise upward its economic assessment of all regions since the BOJ started the quarterly report in April last year. "The momentum for economic recovery is strengthening in all nine regions as a whole against the background of a distinct increase in production along with a continuous recovery in private demand," the report says. On the other hand, the report notes that "disparities remain in the degree of improvement among regions," saying the Hokkaido and Shikoku regions are still picking up gradually. The report says sales of flat-screen televisions and other digital home appliances grew, while sales of winter clothing also surged given the colder-than-average temperatures. Of the nine regions, the economies of the Kanto-Koshinetsu region, which covers Tokyo, and the Tokai region centering on Nagoya, "continue to recover," the report said, dropping the word "gradually" that was used in the October report. Meanwhile, record-breaking snowfalls have produced the mixed results in the regional economies, a BOJ official said, citing discussions in a one-day meeting of BOJ branch managers held earlier in the day. Thanks to heavy snow, construction firms found more work in removal of snow than before and the number of car repairs went up. Sales of heating equipments, kerosene and winter clothing also soared, the official said. By contrast, operators of hotels and inns in the snow-hit Tohoku and Hokuriku regions faced massive cancellations of reservations due mainly to disrupted traffic, and consumers shied away from retail stores, he said. |