Japan’s economy grew 6.3 per cent overnight after it became the latest country to apply new UN standards for compiling national accounts.

日本经济规模一夜之间增长6.3%，原因是该国采用了联合国(UN)新版标准来编制国民账户。

The change, which takes the measured size of Japan’s economy from ￥499tn to ￥531tn ($4.6tn) for 2015, is a political boon¹ for Shinzo Abe, prime minister, who has vowed² to lift output to ￥600tn by 2020.

这一改变使日本衡量得出的2015年经济规模从499万亿日元上升至531万亿日元（合4.6万亿美元）。这对日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)而言是一个政治提振，他曾誓言到2020年将日本的经济产出提高到600万亿日元。

Although it makes no difference to the true size of the economy, the new accounting³ delivers a third of his political promise.

尽管这一改变对日本经济的真实规模没有影响，但新的统计方法帮他一举兑现了三分之一的政治承诺。

Japan’s new figures, which also suggest more robust⁴ underlying⁵ growth since Mr Abe came to power in 2012, highlight the impact of the UN accounting standards around the world.

日本的新数据也表明，自安倍2012年上台以来，根本层面的经济增长更为强劲，这凸显出联合国会计准则在世界各地的影响。

They will lower Japan’s high ratio of debt to gross domestic product.

新会计准则降低了日本很高的债务与国内生产总值(GDP)之比。

Under the rules, spending on research and development, patents and copyrights is treated as investment, and so is added to GDP for the first time.

按照新规则，对研发、专利和版权的支出被视为投资，因而首次被计入GDP。

Because of Japan’s high R&D spending, the change has a big impact.

由于日本的研发支出较高，这一改变产生了很大影响。

Similar changes in the US raised GDP only 3.2 per cent.

在美国，类似的改变只将GDP抬高了3.2%。

Toru Suehiro, senior market economist⁶ at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, said: The impact on [overall] growth appears to be limited, but capitalisation of R&D is a relatively⁷ large change that has boosted growth in private non-residential investment.

瑞穗证券(Mizuho Securities)高级市场经济学家末广彻(Toru Suehiro)表示：对（整体）增长的影响似乎有限，但研发的资本化是一个相对较大的改变，提振了私人部门非住宅投资的增长。

However, the revised figures also suggest that economic growth has been significantly stronger since Mr Abe’s rise to power than previously⁸ thought,

然而，经修订的数据还表明，自安倍上台以来，日本的经济增长要比此前认为的强劲得多。

even though for the latest quarter, from July to September, the figure was revised down from an annualised 2.2 per cent to 1.3 per cent, suggesting a reduction in momentum⁹.

尽管在从7月到9月的最近一个季度，日本经济增长从2.2%的年化增长率下修至1.3%，似乎表明增长势头减弱了。