The government raised its assessment of the economy for May on Friday, saying downside trends are coming to a halt, helped by upbeat industrial production, though an uncertain outlook for the global economy remains due to the U.S.-China trade dispute.
The Cabinet Office said its coincident index of business conditions for May rose 1.1 points from the previous month to 103.2 against the 2015 base of 100.
For March, the government used the phrase "worsening," the most pessimistic of its five expressions, for the first time in more than six years, suggesting the possibility that the world's third-largest economy was heading into a recession. It maintained the evaluation for the following month.