JAPAN

Workers May Get Smaller Pay Raises: Shrinking corporate profits may force Japanese workers, among the highest paid in the world, to settle for smaller pay increases when nationwide wage negotiations end late next month or early April, economists said. However, some economists expect the continuing labor shortage to prevent any big drop in pay increases. “We expect an average pay increase of 4.9% against this fiscal year’s average of 5.65%,” said Hisashi Inoue, chief economist at Nikko Research Centre Ltd. The smaller pay increase expected this year is because of stable consumer prices, slowing economic conditions and declines in corporate profits, Inoue said.