Oct.-Dec. GDP growth revised up to 1.6%

March 8, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's economy grew a revised 1.6 percent in October-December last year on an annual basis in real terms, faster than the preliminary reading of 0.5 percent, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.

Quarter on quarter, the country's seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product rose a revised 0.4 pct in the third quarter of fiscal 2017, against the preliminary reading of a 0.1 percent increase, the government agency said.

Japan thus marked the eighth straight quarter of economic growth.

The upward revisions stemmed from an increase in communications-related corporate capital expenditures mainly in the manufacturing sector.

Inventory buildups for raw materials, including crude oil, turned out faster than previously estimated, also contributing to the revisions stronger than market predictions.

The revised annualized figure even exceeded the most bullish forecast of 1.3 percent among 19 think tanks polled by Jiji Press. Their median forecast was for a 0.9 percent rise.

In nominal terms, October-December GDP rose a revised 0.3 percent quarter on quarter, against the preliminary reading of a 0.03 percent fall. At an annual rate, GDP change was revised up to a 1.1 percent rise from a 0.1 percent decline.

The GDP grew more slowly in nominal terms than in real terms, as import price hikes due to higher crude oil prices did not fully lead to domestic price appreciations.

In the reporting quarter, corporate capital expenditures rose a real 1.0 percent quarter-on-quarter, up from a 0.7 percent rise in the preliminary data, which were released last month.

Public-sector investment was revised up to a 0.2 percent decline from the preliminary reading of a 0.5 percent decrease.

Private-sector inventory changes pushed up real GDP growth by 0.1 percentage point, against the negative contribution of 0.1 point in the preliminary report.

As a result, domestic demand pushed up real GDP by 0.4 point, up from 0.1 point, while external demand, or net exports, pulled it down by 0.03 point, unchanged.

For the whole of 2017, Japan's nominal GDP was revised to 546.5 trillion yen. The country's real GDP grew a revised 1.7 percent from the previous year, up from the preliminary rise of 1.6 percent, while the nominal rate also improved to a revised 1.5 percent from 1.4 percent. Jiji Press