Japan Is Now Experiencing A Recession

Japan's economy contracted over the summer, sending the country back into recession. The news comes at a time when countries across the globe are struggling to keep their economies from shrinking.

Japan began the work week with bad news Monday: The country has slid back into recession.

The Asian country's economy has been shrinking for months, with Monday's new numbers showing it contracted 1.6% between July and August, the Associated Press reported. Between April and June, Japan's economy contracted 7.1%.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to respond to the country's economic woes with a "snap election," or an earlier-than-expected general election. The idea behind the snap elections is for Abe to maximize his party's parliamentary power, as well as to renew the mandate for his economic policies. Abe's policies, known as "Abenomics," were supposed to revitalize Japan's economy.

Abe also is expected to cancel an upcoming sales tax hike that was scheduled to go into effect in 2015.

Japan pulled out of its last recession in 2012, the AP reported.

Japan's new recession comes at a time of global economic uncertainty.

The German economy has barely grown in recent months and just narrowly missed sliding into a recession of its own last week. In fact, the entire Eurozone has seen slow growth recently, as well as stagnent unemployment numbers and other economic indicators, BBC reported. Still, paltry economic growth numbers did allow Europe to escape a much-discussed "triple-dip" recession.

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