Japan’s economy contracted by an annualised 0.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2018, ending the country’s longest run of growth since 1989 and dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The slowdown, which was the first contraction in the economy since 2015, was worse than analyst expectations of a 0.2 per cent decline in gross domestic product. It marks the end of an eight-quarter run of uninterrupted growth and suggests the global economic environment is becoming less favourable for Japan.
But analysts do not think the fall is the start of a recession. Japan’s labour market remains extremely tight, with an unemployment rate of just 2.5 per cent, and other economic indicators point to a steady expansion.
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