Japan's economy barely grows in second quarter

Japan's economic growth rate in the second quarter came in disappointingly low. Reuters reports:

Japan's economic growth slowed to a crawl in the second quarter and analysts see more weakness ahead, adding to policymakers' headaches as they grapple with deflation and a rise in the yen that threatens an export-reliant recovery...

Japan's quarterly gross domestic product growth of 0.1 percent translates to annualized expansion of 0.4 percent, well below the median market forecast of 2.3 percent and the United States' 2.4 percent annualized growth in the same quarter.

That followed revised 4.4 percent annualized growth in the first quarter, when both exports and a stimulus-driven recovery in consumption contributed to overall growth.

The Reuters report noted that China's economy may have overtaken Japan's in the second quarter.

The latest figures put China ahead of Japan as the world's second-largest economy for the quarter on a nominal dollar basis, said Keisuke Tsumura, a parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office...

Japan's second-quarter GDP before seasonal adjustments totaled $1.2883 trillion against China's second-quarter unadjusted GDP of $1.3369 trillion, he said.

Not to rub salt into the wound, but in terms of growth rate, Japan has also been overtaken by the other major developed economies.

Real GDP growth
	2009		2010
	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2
United States	0.4	1.2	0.9	0.6
Japan	0.1	1.1	1.2	0.1
Germany	0.7	0.3	0.5	2.2
France	0.3	0.6	0.2	0.6
United Kingdom	-0.3	0.4	0.3	1.1
Italy	0.4	-0.1	0.4	0.4