28 Sep 2013 by Jim Fickett.
Last month Japan reported Q2 GDP results. Real GDP has grown at an annual rate of 0.8% over the last 10 years. The most recent year-over-year growth was 1.3%, somewhat above average, but looking at the graph shows that there is no convincing case to be made that the improvement is other than noise.
The most recent data on industrial production shows no evidence of a growth trend:
In sum, Japan is doing OK, but so far there is no real evidence that Abe's policies are doing anything other than build up debt more quickly than before.