Japan's economy takes record second-quarter plunge, U.K. in deep recession amid coronavirus

Japan’s economy shrank at an annual rate of 27.8% in April-June, the country’s government said Monday

The contraction comes amid the coronavirus pandemic and was Japan’s worst on record, according to the Associated Press. The country is in a recession, as is the United Kingdom, which has the deepest recession among the world’s top economies. 

Japan has the world’s third-largest economy after the United States and China. 

Japan's economy shrank 0.6% in the January-March period, and contracted 1.8% in the October-December period last year, meaning the country slipped into recession in the first quarter of this year. Recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

By comparison, the U.S. economy contracted at a rate of nearly 33% in the last quarter, while that in the United Kingdom dropped 20.4%. The quarterly drop is the worst since records began in 1955, the Office for National Statistics said, and means Britain is also in recession.

Britain has suffered the deepest recession among the world’s top economies this year, shrinking by a fifth in the second quarter alone when much of the economy was shuttered as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the wire service also reports.