Japan's gross domestic product in the three months to December was unchanged from a 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter fall estimated earlier, but corporate investment was weaker than feared, data showed Thursday.
On an annualised basis, GDP in the December quarter was revised to a fall of 4.8 percent from a 4.5 percent slide seen previously, the Cabinet Office said.
"We revised GDP in the fourth quarter downward as (there was a) slight downward revision in capital expenditure in the finance and insurance sector," a government official told a news briefing.
"But, as the revision is so slight, overall quarter-on-quarter figures have not been revised," he said.
Capital spending in the finance and insurance sector was altered to a growth of 21.4 percent in the three months to December compared with a 23.7 percent quarter-on-quarter rise seen in the prior estimate made on March 8.
Consumption by the government was also corrected down to an increase of 0.4 percent, from a 0.7 percent rise.
Private consumption, which accounts for 55 percent of GDP, was unchanged at an increase of 1.9 percent over the quarter.
GDP, the primary indicator of the status of the economy, measures total value of goods and services produced over a particular period of time.
Recession in the world's second largest economy deepened to three straight quarters last year, marking the worst nine-month contraction on record.
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.5 percent in the three months to September and 1.2 percent the previous quarter.
The economy last suffered three quarters of negative growth in a row from April to December 1993.
(China Daily April 26, 2002)
