Japan to raise FY 2010 GDP growth forecast to 2.6%: sources+

TOKYO, June 21 Kyodo -
The government plans to revise upward its projection for Japan's real gross
domestic product growth in fiscal 2010 to 2.6 percent from 1.4 percent forecast
at the end of last year, reflecting brisk exports to China and firm domestic
personal consumption, government sources said Monday.
If the latest projection is realized, the Japanese economy would mark the first
expansion in three years, with the growth rate topping 2 percent for the first
time since fiscal 2006, when GDP grew 2.3 percent.
The forecast for fiscal 2010, which ends next March, will be announced as an
estimate by the Cabinet Office, in line with fiscal rehabilitation measures
scheduled to be adopted at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
Japan's GDP grew an annualized 5.0 percent in the January-March quarter.
The government has judged that the economy will continue to recover at a faster
pace than initially anticipated, backed by strong exports to China and other
Asian countries as well as firm personal consumption in Japan, the sources
said.
==Kyodo
2010-06-21 23:22:12