MacroScope

It seems to have been an honest mistake for a new minister and Japan's new government.

"I didn't know about that (the release time). I'm sorry. Don't make much of a fuss" Japanese Trade Minister Masayuki Naoshima told a TV reporter on Monday, right after he accidentally revealed the GDP figures ahead of their official release.

The minister looked sincerely surprised when informed of the official release time, but the light tone of his comments suggested that he did not fully understand the gravity of the error. 

He later offered a more formal apology, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano reprimanded Naoshima for his leak of the market-sensitive data, which showed Japan's economy grew much more than expected in the third quarter.

Still, I was surprised to see Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama smiling when asked about Naoshima's mistake.

Sovereign wealth funds may have turned the tables on the rest of the world.

Wrapping up their inaugural meeting in the capital of Azerbaijan, 20 leading sovereign wealth funds urged host countries to make their investment regimes more transparent and discriminatory and keep investment borders and flows as open as possible. (For the story click here).

This comes after years of host countries — the West — asking them to open their books.

Much of the two-day meeting which ended on Friday was held behind closed doors, but the organisers — Azerbaijan’s state oil fund — let media in with cameras and video recorders to film the final 5 minutes of the meeting.

Remember that old chestnut about how it’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job and it’s a depression when YOU lose yours?

Well, research carried out by Datamonitor suggests a similar divergence between British consumer perception and behaviour during the current economic downturn.

The survey found that 90 percent of UK consumers believed that the country was in the grip of recession but slightly over half of them (53 percent) said their household finances have either improved or stayed the same. Similarly, twice as many people feel their job is safe as those who have actually lost or fear they will lose their jobs.