**Japan’s factory output rose for the fourth straight month in June, up 2.4% from May, as the manufacturing sector continued to recover.**For the April to June period, output rose 8.3% compared with January to March, which was the biggest quarter-on-quarter rise since 1953.
However, factory output last quarter was still substantially lower than the same time a year earlier.
And separate figures showed consumer spending was down again last month.
Retail sales were 3% lower in June than a year earlier, the 10th monthly fall in a row, as consumers continued to cut spending because of job market fears.
Analysts said the two sets of official figures showed that Japan’s slow recovery from recession was being led by exports, but that domestic consumption remained weak.
The Japanese central bank said early this month that the country’s economic conditions had “stopped worsening”, but downgraded its economic forecast for the current financial year.
The Bank of Japan now expects the economy to shrink 3.4% in the 12 months to 31 March 2010, a deeper contraction than its previous forecast of -3.1%.