Abenomics

Not one Japanese company applied for a subsidy program aimed at promoting more women to senior jobs, an official said Sept. 28, an embarrassing blow for Tokyo's push to boost the economy with female workers.

Hundreds of firms had been expected to apply for cash rewards in exchange for reaching targets to place women in high-ranking jobs and train female workers for senior positions.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, fresh from a bruising battle over unpopular military legislation, announced on Sept.24 an updated plan for reviving the world's third-largest economy, setting a GDP target of 600 trillion yen ($5 trillion).

The U.S. Federal Reserve takes center stage in the coming week, eclipsing industry data from China, another grim inflation reading from the euro zone and rate decisions in Japan and Switzerland.

At first look, yesterday?s Turkish data releases seem to have discredited two-thirds of my last column, where I argued the economy was in a dangerous mix of slowing growth, persistent inflation and a stubborn current account deficit.

Japanese premier Shinzo Abe was on Sept. 8 re-elected head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, despite falling popularity over efforts to expand the military's role and a stuttering economy.

Turkey is unable to escape the low-growth path it has been stuck in since 2012. This situation of low-growth of around 3 percent is expected to continue both due to Turkey's specific circumstances and the effect of low growth tendencies in the world economy. 

Japan?s economy shrank at an annualized pace of 1.6 percent in April-June as exports slumped and consumers cut back spending, adding pressure on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to step up his policy drive to lift the economy out of decades of deflation.

Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic says the country's budget deficit in May was 1.6 percent of GDP and that he expects it to be two percent of GDP in June.

This amounts to RSD 40 billion.

Greek consumer prices fell 2.1 percent year-on-year in May, with the annual pace of deflation unchanged from the previous month, data from the country?s statistics service showed on Wednesday.

Greece?s European Union-harmonized deflation rate slowed, showing prices fell by 1.4 percent in May from a 1.8 percent decline in April.

By Thanos Tsiros

Value-added tax rates have been raised three times since 2010, all within the space of one year: in March and July 2010 and then in January 2011. The hike that the government is negotiating with the country?s creditors will be the fourth in five years.