(18 May 2004 – Japan) Japan’s lending markets dropped again in April, the 40th consecutive month of decline since the Bank of Japan began including data from credit union equivalents in January 2001.Lending exclusive of the credit unions was down 4.5 percent to 391.4490 trillion yen, the 76th straight month of decline, according to Japan’s central bank.
This trend is also being felt by the foreign banks in Japan which have seen their lending fall 23.3 percent from the previous year’s figure.