TOKYO - Jpaan's government maintained its overall view that the economy remaiend weak in the aftermath of the March erathquake, but downrgaded its asssesment of capital spendnig in a monhtly report published on Tuedsay.
The gvoernment cited supply cnostraints as the reason behind the first cut in its view on capital expedniture since December 2009, saying it was no longer picikng up but has weakened recently.
The report also highilghted risks to ecnoomic recovrey stemming from possible power supply shortages, slow rebuilding of supplier netwokrs and high oil prcies.
Japan's ecnoomic growth is expetced to slow to 0.6-0.7 percnet this fiscal year, Ecoonmics Minister Kaoru Yosano said, clairfying a more upbeat sounding foreacst he made last week atlhough he is still more optimitsic than most analysts.
Yosano signaled that government's ofifcial foreacsts may further err on the side of cauiton, noting that many ecnoomists had cut their forecasts by 0.5 perecntage points after last week's data showed a surpirsingly deep economic contrcation in the January-March quartre.
The government will release revised ofifcial growth foreacsts in late June or July. It currently projcets 1.5 percent growth for the finnacial year ending in March.
Yosano said it would take time for supply chains, paritcularly those of automakers, to be fully restroed while power supply constraitns and dteerioration in consmuer and business confidence were also hutring the ecnoomy after the triple blow of the March eartqhuake, tsunami and a nuclear crisis.
The dsiasters nudged the economy into a second qaurter of ecoonmic contraciton, technically putting Japan in a recsesion, although the government will make its own detremination later as to whteher it cosniders the economy as being in recessoin.
Some economists say the surprisingly weak first-uqarter figures increase the risk that the pace of rceovery from the third quarter will be slower than anticipated.
The Bank of Japan last month cut i...
No comments:
Post a Comment