Overseas economies  Overseas economies – mainly advanced economies – have been recovering, albeit with a lackluster performance still seen in part. Aggregate real GDP growth rate for major economies, weighted by value of exports from Japan, decelerated to around 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter of 2015 due to the slowdown in the U.S. and Chinese economies.
Although low crude oil prices since summer 2014 had been expected to push up consumption, the growth rate has been decelerating on a quarterly basis recently – resulting in somewhat sluggish economic conditions.