The daily business briefing: August 17, 2020

Japan's economy posts a record decline, Chinese drone maker DJI cuts staff, and more

The Tokyo Stock Exchange
(Image credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Japan's economic decline is worst on record

Japan's economy shrank at a record annual rate of 27.8 percent in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic disrupted businesses around the world, according to government data released Monday. The figures indicated that the country's seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product, or GDP, fell 7.8 percent quarter on quarter, the worst since the government began compiling records of such drops in 1980. Japan's previous record contraction occurred during the global financial crisis just over a decade ago. Japan fell into recession, officially defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, in the first quarter when its economy shrank by 0.6 percent following a 1.8 percent decline in the last three months of 2019.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.