The government on Wednesday downgraded its diagnosis of the Japanese economy's health for the seventh time this year, as the effects of the September terrorist attacks in the United States began to be felt.
"The economy is deteriorating further," the Cabinet Office said in a monthly report on the overall current state of the domestic economy, in what it considers a subtle departure from the phrase used to describe September and October -- that the economy "continues to deteriorate."
With regard to short-term prospects, the report says, "concerns have intensified over a simultaneous slowdown of the world economy, with the adverse effects of the series of terrorist attacks in the U.S."