Germany overtakes Japan as third-biggest economy
economictimes.indiatimes.comeconomy, Japan slipped below Germany last year to fourth place, official data showed Thursday, although India is projected to leapfrog both later this decade.
Despite growing 1.9 percent, Japan's nominal 2023 gross domestic product in dollar terms was $4.2 trillion, government data showed, compared with $4.5 trillion for Germany, according to figures released there last month.
The change in positions primarily reflects the sharp fall in the yen against the dollar, which slumped by almost a fifth in 2022 and 2023 against the US currency, including around seven percent last year.
This was in part because the Bank of Japan has maintained negative interest rates, unlike other major central banks, which have raised borrowing costs to fight soaring inflation.
Both economies rely heavily on exports, though Germany's manufacturers have been hit particularly hard by soaring energy prices and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Europe's biggest economy has also been hampered by the European Central Bank raising interest rates in the eurozone as well as uncertainty over its budget and chronic shortages of skilled labour.
In January, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner dismissed accusations that his country was the «sick man» of Europe.
«Germany is a tired man after a short night and the low-growth expectations are partly a wake-up call,» he said.
Falling population
Japan is also heavily reliant on exports, in particular cars, sales of which have been helped by
