P. M. BRIEFING : Japan’s Inflation Up, Growth Off
- Share via
TOKYO — Japanese inflation soared and production growth slumped in 1989, but the country still turned in an economic performance that was the envy of most of its trading partners.
The government said today that consumer prices jumped 2.3% last year, after rising a meager 0.7% in 1988.
That was the biggest rise since 1984 but still looked small when compared with many other nations, including the United States, where inflation is about 4.5%.
Japan also did better than many of its trading partners in churning out products in 1989, even though industrial output grew only 5.9% after surging 9.5% in 1988. Economists said the slowdown in output growth was to be expected after 1988’s torrid rise and maintained that the 3-year-old economic upswing remains in place.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
