Japan’s first quarter decline a record

Japan’s first quarter GDP, hit by falling exports and domestic demand, fell a record 4 percent from the earlier quarter, the government said Wednesday.

The Cabinet Office in a preliminary report said it was the fourth straight quarterly decline for the world’s second largest economy with a GDP of about $4.3 trillion.

Based on the latest numbers, the GDP contracted at an annual rate of 15.2 percent, Kyodo news service reported.

That beat the previous annual worst performance record of 13.1 percent in the January-March quarter of 1974, which was blamed on the global oil crisis.

Economists in a Kyodo survey had forecast a 4.3 percent decline in this year’s first quarter and an annual shrinkage of 16.2 percent.

The government said consumer spending, which accounts for 55 percent of Japan’s GDP, fell 1.1 percent in the first quarter of this year from last year’s fourth quarter.

Corporate capital spending in the latest quarter was off a record 10.4 percent as companies sought to cut their losses, the report said.