Japan's economy shrank 1.3 percent on an annualized basis in the second quarter of the year compared to the January-March quarter, as the disruption in the supply of key parts led to a decline in exports and as private consumption remained sluggish in the wake of the March 11 disaster, the government said Monday.
Although the gross domestic product marked the third straight quarterly decline in inflation-adjusted real terms, the rate of decline in the April-June quarter was smaller than the annualized 3.6 percent decline posted in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report.
The latest result corresponds to a 0.3 percent slide from the previous quarter.
As economic activity appears to be recovering, the nation's economy is highly likely to expand in the next quarter, according to economists.
It is the first time the GDP has experienced three consecutive quarterly declines since the four straight quarterly contractions starting in April-June 2008 that were propelled by the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September that year.
With the disruption of the supply of key parts following the disaster, the output of automobiles and other products plunged, resulting in a 4.9 percent decline in exports.
Meanwhile, private-sector housing construction fell 1.9 percent, as construction was stopped or housing starts were postponed, mainly in the disaster-affected areas.
Private consumption, which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP, slipped 0.1 percent in the April-June quarter, as sales of automobiles dropped and people apparently avoided travel or dining out.
But the rate of decline was smaller than the 0.6 percent drop posted in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, corporate capital investment rose 0.2 percent, the first rise in two quarters, as companies, which had put production on hold shortly after the March disaster, gradually increased their output of materials, equipment and machinery.
In addition, there was a lull in reducing inventories following the decline in production, and stocks of such durable goods as cars began building up, pushing the real GDP up by 0.3 percent.
Public investment increased 3 percent, the first growth in six quarters, due to accelerated construction of temporary housing for disaster victims.
"We can expect to realize relatively high growth in the latter half of this year," Kaoru Yosano, state minister for economic and fiscal policy, said at a news conference. "We want to pay particular attention to the possible impact on our economy of a growing sense of uncertainty in the world economy and the rising strength of the yen."
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