Recession goes global

Washington Post:

Japan reported yesterday that its exports plunged a record 27 percent in November, signaling a dramatic deterioration in the world's second-largest economy and the collapse of the export-led boom that had lifted many Asian nations.

Indeed, even mighty Toyota said yesterday that it would post its first operating loss in seven decades, providing a vivid example of how some of the world's most profitable companies have been quickly humbled by the global recession.

Japan's stunning decline in exports is being echoed across Asia, where country after country is reporting data that have exceeded even the grimmest forecasts. Thailand said yesterday that its exports in November fell by nearly 19 percent, the most in 17 years. Similarly, Taiwan's exports fell 23 percent in November, and a government report on future export orders set to be released today is expected to show another steep drop.

"Everyone is tanking together. A fall of 27 percent is really striking and portends substantially greater weakness," said Easwar Presad, a senior professor of trade policy at Cornell University. "The bottom line is that many of these countries that relied on export-led growth will have to rely on domestic demand to get out of this thing."

China had reported that its November exports took their biggest dive in seven years -- a drop that has reverberated across Asia because China has become the largest export market for many of its neighbors. Japanese shipments to China fell 25 percent, the steepest decline in 13 years, the Japanese Finance Ministry said.

As much as 50 percent of China's trade is related to processing -- buying semiconductors and other parts from Japan, South Korea and other neighbors and then assembling them at low cost into finished products for companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Samsung. China, in effect, is the final assembly station for vast global production networks, which are now sputtering to a halt.

Japan has already officially entered a recession, propelled by its close ties to the U.S. economy, and the government has cut interest rates and boosted domestic spending in an effort to mitigate the recession's impact. But Toyota's woes are the latest sign of what the World Bank predicts will be the first decline in global trade since 1982.

Last year, Toyota's operating profit was more than $25 billion, which can be largely attributed to the success of fuel-efficient models like the hybrid Prius. Until recently Toyota had projected an operating profit of nearly $7 billion for the fiscal year ending in March. But yesterday, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe announced that the company expects to post a $1.7 billion loss because of what he called a once-a-century event of collapsing consumer demand and the rapidly rising value of the Japanese yen.

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I don't think Toyota made money on the Prius, at least not much. It was the sale of its other vehicles that created the profit. What this decline shows is that the US is the engine of the world economy and we we have a downturn, it reverberates around the world. Those who have looked at the US as the enemy must now reconsider how important our market is to their prosperity.