Tokyo, April 28: Japan has announced that its month-to-month industrial output plunged more than 15 percent in March, following the recent mega-quake and tsunami in the country.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Thursday that the country’s output in March plummeted 15.3 percent after the March 11 twin disasters crippled production and supply chains in the Asian country, the Associated Press reported.
The dive was sharper than an earlier average market forecast of an 11.4-percent decline.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry attributed the decline mainly to the fall in the production of autos and other vehicles and general machinery drove the decline.
Top Japanese automakers such as Toyota have resumed production but at only 50 percent of the normal volume.
This is the country’s biggest industrial production nosedive since 1953.
The Japanese government, however, expects production to increase in April and May.
On March 11, an 9.0-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan’s main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.
Over 28,000 people have been reported dead or missing following the quake and the ensuing tsunami.
On Wednesday, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s estimated that reconstruction costs could pass USD 600 billion for the world’s third biggest economy.
Japan is also grappling with the nuclear crisis triggered by the natural disasters.
Radioactive The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leaked out radiation after it was crippled by the quake. Japanese workers have been racing against time to contain the leakage.
——Agencies