[00:00.00]如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享This is the VOA Special English [00:03.10]Economics Report. [00:05.15]This week, [00:06.64]Moody's Investors Service [00:08.69]lowered its credit rating [00:10.70]for Japanese government debt. [00:13.34]The credit rating agency [00:15.58]downgraded Japan one step [00:18.27]from Aa2 to Aa3. [00:22.00](SOUND) [00:27.08]Finance Minster Yoshihiko Noda [00:29.27]said trust in the economy [00:31.80]"will not be shaken" [00:33.55]by Wednesday's action. [00:36.06]Moody's said it acted [00:38.15]because of Japan's [00:39.44]large budget deficits [00:41.23]and buildup in government debt [00:44.11]since the two thousand nine [00:46.11]global recession. [00:47.45]Japan's public debt [00:49.99]is twice the size of its economy. [00:52.48]Japan has the world's [00:54.86]third-largest economy. [00:57.35]Moody's said another reason [01:00.09]was Japan's political situation. [01:03.11]Japan has had [01:05.10]five prime ministers [01:07.09]since two thousand six. [01:09.03]The current prime minister, [01:11.62]Naoto Kan, [01:12.87]is expected to resign soon. [01:15.36]Japan struggled more than [01:18.90]many other countries [01:20.19]after the worldwide [01:21.93]financial crisis. [01:23.38]This month, Japan said [01:26.72]its economy shrank [01:28.06]at an annual rate of 1.3 percent [01:31.75]from April through June. [01:34.14]It was the third quarter [01:36.48]of shrinkage in a row. [01:38.62]The earthquake and tsunami [01:42.01]in March hurt manufacturing. [01:44.40]Shortages of parts [01:46.84]led to a big drop [01:48.58]in sales and profit for Toyota, [01:52.17]the world's top selling carmaker. [01:55.07]Yet the report on the economy [01:58.26]was good news. [01:59.86]Economists had expected [02:02.84]a bigger decrease following [02:05.28]the disasters and the nuclear [02:07.52]crisis that followed. [02:09.16]But there is concern that a rise [02:12.79]in the yen could hurt growth. [02:15.23]A high exchange value [02:18.83]makes Japanese exports costlier [02:21.07]and less competitive. [02:23.16]This week, Japan announced [02:26.54]a program of one hundred [02:28.54]billion dollars in loans [02:30.33]to support business spending. [02:32.87]The goal is to help weaken [02:35.96]the yen and lift economic growth. [02:39.09]Bond traders said [02:42.13]Moody's downgrade of Japan [02:43.97]was not a surprise. [02:46.21]The action had the expected [02:48.84]effect of raising borrowing costs [02:51.88]for the Japanese government. [02:54.08]Still, at about one percent, [02:57.26]Japan enjoys the lowest [02:59.55]borrowing costs of [03:01.00]any major developed nation. [03:03.58]Earlier this month, [03:05.92]another credit rating agency [03:08.31]downgraded United States [03:10.61]government debt for the first time. [03:13.15]Standard and Poor's blamed [03:16.14]the political fight [03:17.83]over the nation's debt. [03:19.47]Foreigners hold much of [03:22.11]the public debt of the United States [03:24.56]and some other countries. [03:26.45]But ninety-five percent [03:29.53]of Japan's debt securities [03:31.37]are held by Japanese, [03:33.27]mostly banks and retirement funds. [03:37.59]On Tuesday, Prime Minister Kan [03:40.53]met with American Vice President [03:42.67]Joe Biden. [03:43.52]Mr. Biden visited Japan [03:46.05]at the end of a trip to Asia. [03:49.20]And that's the VOA Special English [03:52.43]Economics Report. [03:54.03]I'm Mario Ritter.如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享