【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.281: Ordinary profit from all industries decreased by 42.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020

The Ministry of Finance released performance statistics for all industries in the second quarter of 2020. The total sales for all industries, excluding the finance/insurance industry, fell by 17.7% from JPY 345,912 billion (US $ 3,263 billion) in the second quarter of 2019 to JPY 284,677 billion (US $ 2,686 billion) in the
second quarter of 2020 (Figure 1). While the percentage of decrease in sales was 20.0% for the manufacturing industry and 16.8% for the non-manufacturing industry, the industries with the highest decrease percentages were service (31.8%), steel (24.3%), and oil/coal (24.1%).

Figure 2 shows the trend of ordinary profit in all industries, including the finance/insurance industry. It fell 42.2% from JPY 26,472 billion (US $ 250 billion) in the second quarter of 2019 to JPY 15,292 billion (US $ 144 billion) in the second quarter of 2020. This suggests that corporate tax revenues will fall significantly in 2021.


Figure 1 Total sales of all industries excluding finance/insurance industry

Source: Ministry of Finance


Figure 2 Total ordinary profit of all industries including the finance/insurance industry

Source: Ministry of Finance