Japan revises up GDP, Brazil slashes interest rate

Japan's Cabinet Office reported today that it has revised up its fourth quarter GDP estimate to show a 0.2 percent contraction instead of the original estimate of a 0.6 percent decline. The upward revision was mostly due to an increase in the estimate of capital expenditure growth to 4.8 percent from the preliminary estimate of 1.9 percent.

However, Japan's current account balance swung to a record deficit of 437.3 billion yen in January. This was at least partly affected by China's lunar New Year holidays though, which hit Japan's exports to that country.

A report from Japan on Wednesday had provided a mixed picture of the economy at the start of 2012. The index of coincident economic indicators slipped 0.5 point in January but the index of leading economic indicators rose 1.1 points.

Meanwhile, the US economy has made a good start to 2012. It added another 216,000 private sector jobs in February, according to a report by ADP on Wednesday.

However, there was disappointing data from Europe on Wednesday. Germany's Economy Ministry reported that German factory orders fell 2.7 percent in January.

In Brazil, the central bank reduced the Selic rate by 0.75 percentage point to 9.75 percent after industrial production showed a 2.1 percent decline in January, the biggest drop since December 2008.