that japan faces a long and tough climb to get its economy back into line. even before this triple crisis hit in march, the economy of japan was weak and it was also getting weaker. as you mentioned, nina, the economy annualized rate of contraction of the economy now stands at 3.7%. that s almost twice what analysts had expected. behind that figure are some even gloomier statistics would you believe? i want to focus on this one. industrial output, down 15.3% in march. that s the worst monthly drop in japan s history. and businesses also took an unprecedented battering in the disaster zone. 10,000 of 24,000 enterprises were affected. that s 42%, nearly one out of every two businesses in the zone was asecond. 600 of those may never actually recover. the worst news for japan, financially speaking, the worst
all the consumer products japan sends around the world plunged 15.3% in march. the worst ever recorded in japan s history. the auto industry hurt the most. car production fell almost 60% in march. nissan s president and ceo, carlos goehn re-opened a factory hard hit this week, leading workers in a rah-rah session. in the hard-region of miyaga prefecture, 00 companies expected to close. as far as tourism coming in, it s fallen off a cliff. airports are reporting a 35% to 6 a% drop in travelers. the nuclear crisis at fukushima
zurich and germany also higher. the dow finished up towards 1% overnight. the second decent rise in two days. optimism in the air about the general overall economic conditions and recovery. here in asia, the nikkei enjoyed another substantial boost today. that s despite very, very grim economic data, the one we talked about a little earlier. worth reiterating one number. 15.3%. that s a contraction in industrial output and what the factories produce down by 15.3% in march compared with the march earlier a year ago. and that s obviously because of what happened with the earthquake and the tsunami, basically factories start working. the supply chains broke down after that devastating impact of that tsunami in particular and we see this massive contraction in industrial production in what was until recently the world s second biggest economy.
are plunging and spending has been sucked into a downward spiral. japan s parliament is now debating emergency stimulus measures to avert an economic disaster. the country could do without. the bank of japan, the central bank there, looks set to slash its growth forecast for the fiscal year which ends in march to just 0.6%. currently its forecast stann stands at 1.6%. let s take a look at some of these miserable numbers. starting with the worst. industrial output, down by 15.3% in the month of march. the worst drop on record as a result of the disaster. that fall was worse than analysts had been expecting. you don t see numbers like this in a mature economy like japan in normal times. it was the automakers, honda, as we just heard, among the hardest hit, suffering from the problems with the supply chain, of course. but many other industries were equally badly hit. the economy minister himself
it is not going to rain. it will be fine and it is not going to rain. you heard that first from robert jolie charged with the extravaganza. let s hope he is right. katie, thanks. time for the business news now. thanks, charlotte. good morning. first this hour, the earthquake and tsunami have is had a far deeper impact on the industrial production than economists first feared. they plunged 15.3% in march compared to february. that s a record fall and it doesn t include the whole month. the quake struck on march 11th. household spending also so you a record drop as people stopped buying nonessential goods. and panasonic announced they are cutting 39,000 jobs worldwide by march 2013. all of that news didn t bother