Japan's economy grew by 2.2 percent in fourth quarter

TOKYO

Japan’s has cut its estimate for its economic growth in the last quarter of the year to a 2.2 percent annual pace from 2.8 percent as consumer spending hit demand.

The Cabinet Office said on Tuesday that Japan’s real gross domestic product also was lower due to higher private inventories than earlier reported.

It was the third straight quarter of expansion, and the government maintains that the economy is moderately recovering.

On a quarter-to-quarter basis, seasonally adjusted real GDP grew 0.6 percent, revised from 0.7 percent.

Private demand shrank 0.3 percent, worse than the 0.1 percent given earlier. Exports grew 1 percent, instead of the earlier 1.1 percent.

The government kept unchanged its finding that the Japanese economy grew at a meager 0.1 percent annual rate, the fourth straight year of expansion.

The outlook for Japan is clouded by uncertainties about the future course for the U.S. economy and policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, especially tariffs.

Japanese companies rely heavily on foreign trade, and tariffs on Japanese exports as well as those of China and other neighboring Asian nations, as well as Mexico and Canada, would reverberate across the globe.

Trade Minister Yoji Muto said on March 10 he had asked U.S. government officials to exempt Japan from vehicle and metal tariffs, but there was no sign Washington would agree to the request.

Muto met U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and other officials in Washington on March 10.