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  3. The Japanese say they suffer from an economic disease called " structural pe

The Japanese say they suffer from an economic disease called " structural pe

游客2024-11-25  0
问题     The Japanese say they suffer from an economic disease called " structural pessimism". Overseas too, there is a tendency to see Japan as a harbinger of all that is doomed in the economies of the euro zone and America—even though figures released on November 14th show its economy grew by an annualised 6% in the third quarter, rebounding quickly from the March tsunami and nuclear disaster.
    Look dispassionately at Japan’s economic performance over the past ten years, though, and "the second lost decade" , if not the first, is a misnomer. Much of what tarnishes Japan’s image is the result of demography—more than half its population is over 45—as well as its poor policy in dealing with it. Even so, most Japanese have grown richer over the decade.
    In aggregate, Japan’s economy grew at half the pace of America’s between 2001 and 2010. Yet if judged by growth in GDP per person over the same period, then Japan has outperformed America and the euro zone. In part this is because its population has shrunk whereas America’s population has increased.
    Though growth in labour productivity fell slightly short of America’s from 2000 to 2008, total factor productivity, a measure of how a country uses capital and labour, grew faster, according to the Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation. Japan’s unemployment rate is higher than in 2000, yet it remains about half the level of America and Europe.
    Besides supposed stagnation, the two other curses of the Japanese economy are debt and deflation. Yet these also partly reflect demography and can be overstated. People often think of Japan as an indebted country. In fact, it is the world’s biggest creditor nation, boasting ￥253 trillion($3.3 trillion)in net foreign assets.
    To be sure, its government is a large debtor; its net debt as a share of GDP is one of the highest in the OECD. However, the public debt has been accrued not primarily through wasteful spending or "bridges to nowhere", but because of ageing, says the IMF. Social-security expenditure doubled as a share of GDP between 1990 and 2010 to pay rising pensions and healthcare costs. Over the same period tax revenues have shrunk.
    Falling tax revenues are a problem. The flip side, though, is that Japan has the lowest tax take of any country in the OECD, at just 17% of GDP. That gives it plenty of room to manoeuvre. Takatoshi Ito, an economist at the University of Tokyo, says increasing the consumption tax by 20 percentage points from its current 5%—putting it at the level of a high-tax European country—would raise ￥50 trillion and immediately wipe out Japan’s fiscal deficit.
    That sounds draconian. But here again, demography plays a role. Officials say the elderly resist higher taxes or benefit cuts, and the young, who are in a minority, do not have the political power to push for what is in their long-term interest. David Weinstein, professor of Japanese economy at Columbia University in New York, says the elderly would rather give money to their children than pay it in taxes. Ultimately that may mean that benefits may shrink in the future. "If you want benefits to grow in line with income, as they are now, you need a massive increase in taxes of about 10% of GDP," he says.
    Demography helps explain Japan’s stubborn deflation, too, he says. After all, falling prices give savers—most of whom are elderly—positive real yields even when nominal interest rates are close to zero. Up until now, holding government bonds has been a good bet. Domestic savers remain willing to roll them over, which enables the government to fund its deficits. Yet this comes at a cost to the rest of the economy.
    In short, Japan’s economy works better for those middle-aged and older than it does for the young. But it is not yet in crisis, and economists say there is plenty it could do to raise its potential growth rate, as well as to lower its debt burden. [br] The tone of the author about Japan’s economy is______.
选项 A、cautiously optimistic
B、quite undecided
C、rigorously neutral
D、slightly pessimistic
答案 A
解析 态度题。尽管本文剖析了日本经济存在的结构性问题，但也多处表示日本的经济状况并不如外界想象的那么糟糕，例如作者在第二段指出将日本的过去十年说成“第二个失落的十年”有失偏颇；第三段和第四段指出日本的人均GDP高于欧美，总体生产力增速较快；第五段首句用“supposedstagnation”暗示日本的经济停滞问题在一定程度上是人们的想当然；最后一段还指出日本经济尚未陷入危机，仍有好转的空间。因而作者对日本经济形势的态度是谨慎乐观的，既指出其问题，又反对夸大问题的严重性，并阐明其改善的可能性，故[A]正确，同时排除[D]。尽管作者的分析较为客观。但观点明确，有明显的评价和判断，既不是举棋不定，也不是严格中立，故排除[B]和[C]。
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