The Japanese economy grew nearly 1.4 percent in the fiscal year that ended in March, nearly three times the 0.5 percent announced previously, the government said Friday after recalculating the numbers using newer international standards.
But Japan’s top economic planner said that did not change the government’s view that the world’s No. 2 economy still was struggling to emerge from its worst downturn in half a century.
“The figures are different, but our economic assessment is unchanged . . . the situation remains severe,” Economic Planning Agency chief Taichi Sakaiya told a news conference.
The statistics–based on standards issued in 1993 by the U.S. Statistical Commission–also showed the economy shrank 0.6 percent in the 1998 fiscal year, compared with a 2 percent decline in the old rules.
The figures measure gross domestic product, the total value of a country’s goods and services produced within its borders.
The Japanese Economic Planning Agency is switching to the newer standards for economic statistics in the July-September quarter, the first time it has made major changes in methodology since 1978.
