Japan enters recession

Japan’s economy is technically in recession after authorities said revised figures for the April-June quarter showed the economy shrank for two straight quarters.

The Cabinet Office said today that gross domestic product for the July-September quarter shrank 0.9% from the previous quarter, unchanged from the preliminary release.

Going back to the April-June quarter, however, GDP was revised to a 0.03% decline from the previous quarter, or a 0.1% contraction at an annualised pace.

Previously, the Cabinet had said second-quarter GDP grew 0.1% from the previous quarter.

A widely accepted definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.