Japan confirms 3.5 pct GDP fall

Japan's economy shrank in the July-September period for a second consecutive quarter of contraction, revised government data showed Monday, indicating that the country is slipping into a recession due to sluggish exports and external demands amid the global economic downturn. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell at an annual 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, unchanged from a preliminary figure released last month, according to the Cabinet Office. On a quarterly basis, the world's third-largest economy shrank 0.9 percent in the three months ended September 30 from the previous quarter, also unchanged from the initial reading of a 0.9 percent fall. But the Cabinet Office revised the annualized GDP growth rate for the April-June quarter downward from positive 0.3 percent to negative 0.1 percent. Cabinet officials said reconstruction demand in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami is no longer strong enough to drive economic growth. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 60 percent of Japan's GDP, revised up to 0.4 percent fall from the previous quarter, compared with an original estimate of a 0.5 percent decline. Corporate capital spending, a key pillar of domestic demand, was revised upward to a 3.0 percent drop from a 3.2 percent decrease in the preliminary data. In regard to foreign demand, exports, one of the key engines of nation's economic recovery, were revised down to 5.1 percent from from the earlier reading of 5.0 percent fall. The index was the weakest in five quarters on the global slowdown and plunge in exports to China amid tensions over a territorial dispute. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced domestically.