Ayear after Shinzo Abe gave notice of his plan to restore Japan to economic vigour, the prime minister’s first arrow of massive monetary expansion is flying as swiftly as anyone could have dreamt. The yen is sharply down, the stock market up and consumer price inflation is edging towards 1 per cent, though there are doubts about how long the inflationary flame will flicker. In the first six months of this year the economy grew at an impressively fast annualised rate of 4 per cent. No one has seen anything like it in years.
一年前,安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)宣布了恢復日本經濟活力的計劃。這位日本首相射出的第一支箭(大規模貨幣擴張),如今正在以快得令人難以想象的速度飛行。日元大幅貶值,股市上揚,消費品價格通脹逐漸逼近1%——盡管有些人在懷疑這團通脹之火能閃爍多久。今年上半年,日本經濟年化增長率達到4%,令人贊嘆。這種景象已是多年未見。