Japan's economy barely grew in the second quarter, revised data showed Thursday, further calling into question Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's big-spending easy-money policy drive. While the figures were a slight improvement on the zero expansion in earlier estimates - owing to an upward revision in capital spending and public investment - they were still well below the previous three months' figures.
And analysts were cool on the prospects for future growth in the world's number-three economy. "It's getting better but the economy is lacking a growth engine and overall the outlook is pretty bleak," said Kohei Iwahara, a Japan economist at French bank Natixis. "There may be some growth in the third quarter but nothing exciting - I'm not optimistic."
Japanese leaders have struggled to get a strong handle on the economy, which contracted in the last three months of 2015, before bouncing back in January-March with a 0.5 percent rise on-quarter and 2.1 percent annualised. It expanded 0.2 percent on-quarter in April-June and 0.7 percent on an annualised basis. The unsteady trend is putting pressure on Japanese officials to deliver as economists increasingly write off Abe's more than three-year attempt to cement a lasting recovery, dubbed Abenomics.