The Japanese economy contracted at a much faster rate than expected at the beginning of the year as people trimmed their spending and as businesses curbed investment.
In the first three months of this year, the world’s third largest economy shrank by 0.5 per cent compared with the previous quarter, the Japanese Cabinet Office said. On an annual basis, the economy contracted more deeply, with output down by 2 per cent.
Performance was constrained by weak domestic spending, which dipped by 0.2 per cent on a quarterly basis, worse than the 0.1 per cent drop in the final quarter of last year. Gross fixed capital formation, a measure of economy-wide investment, slipped by 0.3 per cent, after growth of 0.9 per cent in the previous
