Japan’s economy expanded by an annualized 2.2% for the first quarter of 2017, a full percentage point higher than 1.2% growth in the previous quarter, reports the Financial Times. A median forecast from economists surveyed by Reuters predicted only 1.7% growth.
Quarter over Quarter numbers:
- GDP up 0.5%
- Domestic demand up 0.4%
- Private consumption rose 0.4%
- Government consumption up 0.1%
- Exports rose 2.1%, slowing from 3.4% in Q42016
- Barclays: “We look for real GDP growth of 2.0% q/q saar in Q2, 1.4% in Q3 and 0.8% in Q4,…In H1 FY17, we expect real growth to continue to exceed potential with private capex increasing gradually and implementation of the FY16 second supplementary budget getting fully underway”.