Japan's industrial output falls, lends weight to forecasts of recession

Tokyo

JAPAN'S industrial output fell at its fastest rate in five years in February, lending support to the likelihood that the world's third largest economy had slipped back into recession in the first quarter of this year.

Output fell 6.2 per cent last month, marking the biggest drop since March 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country's north-eastern coast, causing major damage and disruptions to industrial supply chains.

The Japanese economy had contracted by 1.4 per cent in the final quarter of calendar 2015 from the preceding quarter, and analysts have widely predicted that the first quarter of this year will show a furth…