Financial authorities expressed disagreement April 14 with an International Monetary Fund economic outlook that put the nation's growth at zero for this year.
The IMF's semiannual World Economic Outlook released Monday saw its forecast for Japan slip downward from the 1.1 percent growth for 1998 it predicted in December.
The report says Japan will face continued decline in domestic demand, and business sentiment will be further dampened this year as a result of the ongoing strain in the financial sector and its effect on credit supply, as well as from the financial weakness elsewhere in Asia.