Unexpected Q1 rebound saves Japan's economy from renewed recession

Tokyo

JAPAN'S economy appeared to perform far better than expected during the first quarter of this year, with real or inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) expanding at an annual rate of 1.7 per cent instead of by the fractional 0.2 per cent or so which many economists had predicted.

The news was welcome for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government as it prepares to host a meeting of G-7 finance ministers in the Japanese city of Sendai this weekend and, with an important election to the upper house of Japan's parliament due to be held in July.

The expansion, which was due mainly to exceptional factors, spared the world's third largest economy a slide back into…