Perversley, if rates go too low, economies can shrink. That's...

Perversley, if rates go too low, economies can shrink. That's because incomes based on rates shrink so ppl spend less. This is reinforced by a belief that the rates are low because the economy is bad, so even ppl with money become cautious.

Japan has an aging population with a significant portion of the pop. dependent on rates-based income, so there is no surprise there.

Russia, of course, is collapsing under the weight of sanctions and their corrupt oligopoly system.

Canada and Brazil are in the same boat as Australia: retreating mineral commodity prices is hitting them badly. The surprise is Canada when compared to Oz. They have a much broader and stable manufacturing base, so should be weathering the storm better than us. The big difference is that Canada has a much larger oil and gas sector than Oz, so is being hit harder while Oz sees comparatively small reductions in oil tax revenues (pollies would say large) but huge reductions in petrol/fuel prices.