Japan’s economy avoided falling into a recession at the end of last year, helped by robust spending by businesses, an outcome that improves the optics for the central bank as it mulls the timing of its first interest rate hike since 2007.
Gross domestic product expanded at an annualized pace of 0.4% in the final three months of last year, the Cabinet Office said Monday, reversing a 0.4% retreat initially reported. While the upwardly revised data point to more resilience in the economy than initially thought ahead of next week’s Bank of Japan policy meeting, the figures also showed that consumers are continuing to spend less in real terms as inflation weighs.
Economists had forecast the updated figures would show growth of 1.1%.