Strongest Japan Loan Growth Since Bubble Shows Reflation at Work

It’s shaping up to be another good year for lending in Japan, data showed on Wednesday, offering further evidence that — for all its shortfalls — the Abenomics program of reflation continues to make progress. One measure of loans outstanding jumped by 2.9 percent in February from a year before, and has gained at least 2 percent each month since the spring of 2013 — a pace not seen in Bank of Japan records going back to 1992, the year Japan’s land-price bubble popped.