Japan’s Sony Corporation has delayed releasing its new PlayStation 3 video game box and Japan’s economy continues to grow.
People anxiously awaiting Sony Corporation’s next generation PlayStation will have to wait until November to buy one. The PS3 was supposed to be on store shelves this spring. But company officials say Sony needs more time to get the game console ready for the biggest sales season at the end of the year.
But economists say postponing the sale of the new video game will be expensive for the Japanese electronics company. It means Microsoft’s competing machine, the Xbox 360, will have been on the market a full year before Sony’s new console.
Japan’s economy continues to expand, with gross domestic product up by 1.3 percent from October to December compared with the previous quarter. It was the fourth-straight quarter of economic growth and economists say it is a good sign that a long economic slump is ending.
The president of Atlantis Investment Research Corporation, Edwin Merner, says unlike past periods of slight growth, the recovery appears to be real and not a false start.
“But now it is different because you have consumer spending recovering – and remember consumer spending accounts for over 50-per cent of the GDP,” said Merner. “And also private capital investments, which account for maybe 14-, 15-per cent of GDP – they are also going up, and exports, which are not so important – maybe 11- or 12-per cent of the GDP – they are also going up and wages are now starting to go up a little bit.”
And the Japanese are feeling the least pessimistic about the economy than at any other time in 15 years. According to the Japanese Finance Ministry, that is because there are better job opportunities and higher salaries. The optimistic outlook spurred Japanese consumers to spend more money, causing the economy to grow even more.
Japan’s third-largest producer of consumer electronics, Sanyo Electric Company, plans to sell four of its warehouses to ProLogis Company for about $135 million. ProLogis, which is based in Colorado, is the largest U.S. real-estate investment trust company.
Sanyo plans to sell more than $1 billion worth of assets because it needs to pay for restructuring plans. The company predicts a second year of record losses – nearly $2 billion – because of falling prices for televisions, chips and electronic products.
– VOA News
