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Gold Prices Hold Near Seven-Week High as Markets Await U.S. Inflation Data 
2015 didn't end well for Japan and BOJ too. According to latest estimate released Japan's economy shrank in final quarter of 2015 and more than it was expected. AQs per latest data, Japan's GDP shrank by 0.4% in fourth quarter on quarterly basis, compared to 0.3% gain in September quarter. On yearly basis, economy contracted by -1.4%, which was highest reading since September, 2014, when economy contracted by 2.8% post 2% sales tax hike by government.
Despite, continued monetary stimulus from bank of Japan (BOJ), economy has hardly staged any recovery and remains as fragile as ever. Over than past 9 quarters, economy has faced 5 quarters of contraction, including one recession. With economy contracting, wages remaining stagnant and consumers reducing their purchase as price rises, Bank of Japan (BOJ) finding itself between rock and a hard place.
It is not just the GDP, other economic releases are equally discouraging.
Industrial production dropped -1.7% in January. Tertiary industry index declined by -0.6% and capacity utilization is also dropped by 1%.
Yen on the other hand is down today as Nikkei rose more than 5% in line with global peers. Yen is currently trading at 113.9 per Dollar and Nikkei around 16040.
