Japan, Germany in recession

The Japanese economy has fallen into recession.

A report on Monday showed that the Japanese economy contracted by 0.9 percent in the first quarter. This followed a 1.9 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2019.

After two consecutive quarterly declines in GDP, the Japanese economy is now tehnically in recession.

"We expect the worst is yet to come, with the state of emergency in Japan and the severity of the pandemic among Western nations continuing to derail the Japanese economy," said Naoya Oshikubo, senior economist at SuMi TRUST.

Last week, Germany reported that its economy shrank 2.2 percent in the first quarter. This followed a 0.1 percent contraction in the fourth quarter of last year, which means that Germany is also in a technical recession.

Elsewhere in the euro area, France and Italy, which have suffered more from the COVID-19 pandemic, had reported economic contractions of 5.8 percent and 4.7 percent in the first quarter respectively.