The government downgraded its headline assessment of Japan's economy for the first time in three years on Wednesday, citing a slowdown in exports to China, but denied the economy had fallen into recession.
In the March edition of its monthly economic report, the Cabinet Office said the world's third-largest economy is "recovering at a moderate pace while weakness is seen recently in exports and industrial production in some sectors."
It marks a downgrade from its earlier assessment that the economy is "recovering at a moderate pace," which it had maintained since January last year. The last time the Cabinet Office downgraded its view was in March 2016.