Japan’s GDP Growth Higher Than Expected

Japan’s economy grew a larger-than-expected 1% in the second quarter of this year, expanding for the second straight three-month period, the government said. The Economic Planning Agency said the latest figure for gross domestic product--the sum of all goods and services Japan produced--means the economy is on track to grow 4.2% this year. The GDP expansion, considerably higher than the 0.7% forecast by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, followed growth of 2.5% in the first quarter. One of the brightest signs in the data was that private consumption, which had long been depressed and dragged on the economy, appeared to have contributed strongly to the expansion.