Both Japan’s factory output and retail sales likely fell at a sharper pace in March as the coronavirus pandemic weighed more heavily across the broader economy, a Reuters poll showed. A marked slowdown in export and domestic demand since the crisis began is widely believed to have pushed the world’s third-largest economy into recession, though analysts do expect some improvement in the second half of the year if there are signs that the outbreak is being contained. Industrial output is forecast to have fallen 5.2% in March from the previous month, the biggest drop since comparable data became available in 2013, the poll of 16 analysts showed, after a revised 0.3% slip in February. “We expect the factory output dropped significantly due to poor auto sales in the United States and Europe, supply chain disruptions and damage to investment appetite due to an increasing uncertainty for […]