Driven by higher exports, the Japanese economy expanded at a healthy pace of 4.9 per cent in the first three months of 2010.
Even the non-export sectoral figures indicate that the world's second largest economy is on a steady recovery path, after being severely hit by the financial meltdown.
According to the data from the Japanese cabinet office, the national economy climbed at an annualised rate of 4.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year.
However, this is below the projections by the analysts who saw an over 5 per cent jump in the GDP. But this is better than the first quarter numbers of the US which rose 4.2 per cent.
In the last quarter of 2009, the Japanese GDP expanded by 4.2 per cent. The Japanese economy's encouraging first quarter growth was mainly drive by robust exports of goods and services, which jumped 30.5 per cent.
The spiralling Eurozone debt crisis and a falling euro, however, are worrisome for the country, since continued weakness in Europe can adversely impact Japan's exports. Also, Japan continues to grapple with massive public debt and the possibility of tax hikes are on the cards.
