At its heart, though, is the organisational power resulting from private, decentralised, individual decisions. These decisions are steered by prices. This is why a functioning price mechanism is the primary steering function. Undistorted prices provide key signals and information on the scarcity of goods, say, so that economic resources can be used to maximise welfare.
As a result of the production decline, exports registered an almost 15 percent cumulative drop from February in the subsequent two months combined. Second, the earthquake also affected the sentiment of economic entities. Private consumption declined as voluntary restraint by consumers dampened spending, particularly for services such as tourism and eating out.