Gov`t likely to forecast 1.4% real economic growth for FY 2010+

TOKYO, Dec. 24 Kyodo -
The Japanese government is likely to forecast an economic growth of 1.4 percent
in real terms for fiscal 2010, the first expansion in three years, expecting
that recovering exports and production would continue to support the economy,
together with its additional stimulus measures, sources close to the matter
said Thursday.
On a nominal basis, the forecast is likely 0.4 percent, also the first positive
growth in three years.
The forecast as measured by gross domestic product for fiscal 2010, beginning
next April, is expected to be approved at a Cabinet meeting Friday.
The government releases its projection for the nation's economic growth for an
upcoming fiscal year in every December. The forecast serves as an effective
target for the government to achieve through its policies.
For Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government, which took power in September,
it is the first economic projection.
The projected growth rates compare with projections made in July by the
previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party which forecast an
inflation-adjusted real GDP growth at 0.6 percent and unadjusted nominal GDP at
a minus 0.3 percent.
The Hatoyama government is putting greater emphasis on achieving positive
growth of the nominal GDP as its reading is said to be closer than real GDP to
what people actually feel about economic conditions, they sources said.
For fiscal 2009, the government forecast is likely be a considerable
contraction in both real and nominal GDP, underscoring the nation's slow
economic recovery from the global recession triggered by the collapse of U.S.
investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, they said.
==Kyodo