of the EC, the USA and Japan in international trade? How dependent are these three economic powers on the world market …The growing importance of Japan on the world market has brought with it changes in the international division of labour … and a shift in the focus of the expansion in world trade away from the EC and the USA. What factors determine the shares …

, is a commonly used indicator of aggregate demand conditions. In-sample evidence for the US, the euro area, Japan and the … performance is mixed. An FCI would have predicted the recent economic downturn in Japan and the UK, but not in the US and the euro …