Japan economy grows for 8th straight quarter

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s economy grew for the eighth straight quarter at the end of 2017, government data showed Wednesday, its longest period of expansion since the “bubble’’ boom days of the late 1980s.

Gross domestic product figures fell short of expectations and represented a slowdown from the previous quarter, but analysts forecast continued growth nonetheless.

GDP expanded just 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2017, the Cabinet Office said, a far cry from the 0.6 percent figure for July-September.

“The growth rate for the last quarter was very low compared with the bubble period but the economy is solid enough,’’ said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

“The slowdown was due primarily to inventory adjustments and a decline in the contribution of net exports due to strength in imports,’’ added analysts at Barclays in a report.

“As such, it did not imply a pull-back in the momentum of economic recovery,’’ analysts Tetsufumi Yamakawa, Yuichiro Nagai and Yukito Funakubo wrote.

At an annualised rate, the world’s third largest economy grew 0.5 percent, also missing expectations.

“There are lingering worries over consumption but we can expect the economy to pick up further if ‘shunto’ wage hikes are better than the previous years,’’ said Minami, referring to collective wage negotiations between labor and management held every spring.

“The current expansion could be extended further,’’ he told AFP.

For the calendar year 2017, the economy grew 1.6 percent, against 0.9 percent in 2016.

Japan’s Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi said the current expansion was solid compared with the more volatile “bubble’’ boom in the 1980s, according to Bloomberg News.