Japan's economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the first quarter of 2005 at more than double the rate expected amid robust private consumption and corporate investment.
Gross domestic product expanded 1.3 per cent in January-March from the previous quarter and 5.3 per cent on an annualised basis in real price-adjusted terms, government data showed today.
The figures far exceeded market expectations for 0.6 per cent growth from the preceding quarter or an annualised 2.2 per cent.
The January-March expansion, which followed barely perceptible growth in October-December, compared with annualised growth of 3.1 per cent in the United States and 1.4 per cent in the Euro zone in the first quarter of the year.
Private-sector consumption rose 1.2 per cent, compared with a consensus forecast for a 1.0 per cent gain, supported by an improvement in the jobs market and wages over the past year.
Most economists said the strong recovery momentum was unlikely to last, however, and that a possible slowdown in China and a prolonged slump in high-tech industries clouded the outlook for the world's second-biggest economy.
Japan's unemployment rate was 4.5 per cent in March compared with 4.7 per cent a year earlier. Winter bonuses were up 2.7 per cent from a year before, for the first rise in eight years. But many said the rise in GDP was mostly due to a sharp fall in the previous quarter, blamed on typhoons and snowstorms.