Japan's economy grew a weaker-than-expected annualized 2.2 percent in real terms during the final quarter of 2014, the government said Monday, suggesting the country has yet to fully recover from a recession triggered by last April's sales tax hike.
The Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report that the October-December growth in real gross domestic product corresponded to a 0.6 percent rise from the previous quarter, the first expansion in three quarters, according to Japan's (Kyodo) News Agency.
The result fell short of the average market forecast of an annualized 3.86 percent growth in a Kyodo News survey, indicating the world's third-biggest economy has yet to completely overcome the negative impact of the 3-percentage-point consumption tax increase to 8 percent in April 2014.