Arabic version: اقتصاد اليابان ينمو بمعدل سنوي 1.1% في الربع الثاني

According to Cnbc, Japan’s economy expanded at an annualized 1.1% rate in the second quarter, below expectations for 2% growth and compared with 2.1% in the previous quarter. Softer domestic demand offset strong exports in the first full quarter reflecting the impact of the Iran war, which has raised energy prices for businesses and households.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, gross domestic product rose 0.3%, missing expectations of 0.5%. Exports added 0.5 percentage points to GDP growth, while weaker domestic demand subtracted 0.2 percentage points. Shipments beat expectations in each month of the quarter, but the performance was helped by the weak yen rather than simply higher shipment volumes.

Norihiro Yamaguchi, lead Japan economist at Oxford Economics, said the fall in domestic demand was mainly linked to reduced public inventories, identified as the government’s release of national oil reserves to cope with the Middle East conflict. He also said purchases of non-durable goods and service consumption declined as sentiment worsened. Business investment shrank on a quarterly basis.

Year on year, Japan’s economy grew 0.7%, up from 0.5% in the first quarter. After the release, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.43%, the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield stood at 2.88%, and the yen strengthened slightly to 159.1 against the dollar. Earlier this month, the Bank of Japan raised its fiscal 2026 GDP growth outlook to 0.6% from 0.5%, while saying the economy was expected to continue growing moderately at a decelerated rate.