Despite growing signs of a global economic slowdown, Japan's gross domestic product expanded at a better-than-expected 3.3 percent annualized rate in the January-March quarter as exporters continued to increase shipments to emerging countries, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
But analysts warned that the economic expansion is likely to lose steam in the coming months as the growth in the last quarter was largely the result of technical factors, including an extra day in February due to the leap year that inflated the data.
And Japanese companies are increasingly cautious about making investments due to uncertainties over the global economic outlook, they said.