TOKYO: The Japanese economy has contracted 0.4 per cent in the April-June quarter, the government says, as worries linger over the government’s growth policies.
Weak consumption and slow exports weighed on the world’s third largest economy, which shrank an annualised 1.6 per cent, after posting growth in the previous two quarters, according to the Cabinet Office figures.
It was the first decline since April-June 2014, when a sales tax hike hit consumption, as households spent less on air conditioners, clothing and personal computers.
Overseas demand shaved 0.3 percentage point off growth as exports to Asia and the United States slumped.
The gloomy data adds to signs that Japan’s economy is at a standstill and heightens pressure on policymakers to offer additional monetary or fiscal stimulus later this year.
The contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) compared with a median market forecast of a 1.9 percent fall and followed a revised expansion of 4.5 percent in the first quarter, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday.
