TOKYO: A one-month extension of Japan's state of emergency to contain the coronavirus outbreak would double the number of new jobless people to 778,000, according to a projection by a private economist.

The extension would keep down consumption and limit movements of people, dealing an additional blow to the Japanese economy, economists said.

Toshihiro Nagahama, a senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, had projected that some 368,000 people would lose jobs during the state of emergency if it expires on Wednesday as initially planned.

Nagahama now estimates that the number would double if the emergency is extended by one month as being considered by the government.

Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at the Nomura Research Institute, said a one-month extension would cause an additional drop of 13.9 trillion yen in private consumption, boosting the total negative impact to 27.8 trillion yen.

Ryutaro Kono, chief economist at BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd., had projected that the current state of emergency would lower the country's fiscal 2020 real gross domestic product by 1.6 pct.

He now projects that the extension would push down the GDP by an additional 1.5 pct. As a result, the growth rate for the year ending in March 2021 would be minus 6.3 pct.

Although the GDP is seen rebounding sharply after an expected slump in April-June this year, it is unlikely to return to the level in January-March within fiscal 2020.

Voluntary restrictions on going out would continue until drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 are developed, Kono said.

"We'll remain unable to return to the levels of economic activities we used to have for about a year after the state of emergency is lifted," he predicted.

JIJI Press