(MENAFN) Japan cut its forecast for economic growth of 1.2 percent in 2014 from 1.4 percent in real terms amid lingering fears that the April 1 consumption tax hike, the first in 17 years, may continue to weigh on domestic demand, QNA reported.
But the nation's nominal GDP is expected to grow 3.3 percent in the current year through March 2015, unchanged from the previous estimate last December, with the Bank of Japan's drastic monetary easing helping push up prices.
If the expectations are realized, the rate of GDP growth would top the real, or inflation-adjusted, rate for the first time in 17 years, suggesting the world's third-largest economy is on the verge of escaping from nearly two decades of deflation.
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