Japan's economy expands annualized 6.0% in Q3

Japan's economy expanded an annualized real 6.0 percent in the three months ended September 30, marking its first increase in four quarters, the Cabinet Office said in a report on Monday. The figure compares with median economists' forecasts for an annual 5.9 percent expansion in the three months ended September 30 and marks the fastest pace of growth in more than a year, bringing an end to three consecutive quarters of contraction, the cabinet office report showed. On an inflation-adjusted basis gross domestic product equates to a 1.5 percent increase from the previous quarter and follows an annualized 2.1 percent contraction logged in the second quarter and reported in September, the government report showed. The expansion has been attributed to a rise in industrial production as Japanese manufacturers see output levels return to full capacity following the March disasters that devastated regions of the country's eastern seaboard and severely disrupted domestic and global supply chains. But economists have warned that the rebound may lose momentum as the nation struggles to combat a persistently strong yen, which has forced some firms to move manufacturing operations from Japan to more economically viable countries, seen firms' overseas profits eroded on unfavorable exchange rates and stripped companies here of their competitiveness in global markets.