IW Long Reads: Japan's record-breaking Q3 growth has rest of the world playing catch-up

Is the West finally waking up?

Given everything else taking place in the world right now, the news Japan's economy grew at its fastest pace on record in the third quarter seems to have gone relatively unnoticed. Having fallen a huge 28.8% in the second quarter, it was announced on Monday that the world's third-largest economy grew an annualised 21.4% between July and September. Not only was this the largest increase since comparable data became available in 1980, it also marked the first increase in four quarters and beat a median market forecast for an 18.9% gain. The rebound was driven largely by a record 4.7% surge...