Just Released: "Japan Business Forecast Report Q1 2014"
Japan's economy lost some steam in Q213, with growth coming in at 2.5% q-o-q in seasonally adjusted annualised terms compared with 3.8% in Q113. Despite this slight deceleration, the strong Tankan survey was enough comfort for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to decide to allow the consumption tax hike to go ahead in April 2014, lifting the tax rate to 8.0% from the current 5.0%.
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