Japan GDP in Q1 roughly unchanged from a year and a half ago

17 May 2012 by Jim Fickett.

Today Japan's Cabinet Office released its first estimate of Q1 GDP.

On the one hand, it is positive that Q1 GDP was 1% greater than that in Q4 of last year. On the other hand, it was only 0.5% greater than the level in Q3 of 2010. So it is really not clear whether the economy is growing or not.

What is clear is that Japan is not experiencing the kind of high growth that would really help with clearing its mountain of debt.