Lack of drivers drops Japan down to fourth
China DailyPedestrians walk past an electronic board showing the closing numbers of the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in Tokyo on February 8, 2024. According to official Japanese data released on Thursday, Japan's nominal GDP in 2023 was 591.48 trillion yen, lower than Germany's $4.46 trillion. While being surpassed by Germany, Japan's nominal GDP grew by 5.7 percent in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of positive growth and the highest growth rate since 6.5 percent in 1991. The long, deep-seated reason why Japan's nominal GDP was surpassed by Germany in 2023 is the long-term lack of stable growth momentum in the Japanese economy. The collapse of the bubble economy, which was fueled by easy credit, speculative real estate and stock market investments, also ruined the perception that Japan's economic growth would continue indefinitely.