IMF pegs Japan growth at 1.4%

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today pegged Japan’s economic growth at 1.4 per cent in 2011 from 3.9 per cent last year, days after the country was hit by a strong earthquake in the Tohuku region. “Japan’s growth of four per cent in 2010 was one of the fastest among the advanced economies, driven by sizable fiscal stimulus and a rebound in exports. Looking forward, however, there are large uncertainties associated with the Tohuku earthquake,” IMF said, while revising down the country’s economic growth by 0.2 percentage points from its earlier projections for 2011.

The revision may be sharper, if the crisis associated with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant aggravates.