Japan’s economy has continued its moderate recovery trend, although exports and production have been sluggish, due mainly to the effects of the slowdown in emerging economies.
On an annualized basis, after the real GDP growth rate for the OctoberDecember quarter of 2015 registered minus 1.7 percent, due partly to the effects of irregularly warm weather, that for the January-March quarter of 2016 increased, registering 2.0 percent, and that for the April-June quarter, which was released in mid-August, registered 0.2 percent; this was broadly about the same level as the growth potential when fluctuations are smoothed out.