The japanese economy it grew 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022, a lower-than-expected recovery despite the reopening of the country to tourism, official figures revealed on Tuesday.
The expansion for the three months to December was less than the 0.5% expected by analysts consulted by Bloomberg.
The world’s third largest economy grew 1.1% last year, according to official data.
Japan reopened its doors to tourism in October after two and a half years of harsh restrictions due to the Covid-19.
In 2019, Japan received a record 31.9 million foreign tourists and the country seemed on track to reach the goal of 40 million visitors by 2020, the year in which it was due to host the Olympic Games.
But with the sanitary restrictions, the country received only 250,000 visitors in 2021, when the Games postponed due to the pandemic were held.
Japan had moderate growth in the fourth quarter of 2022,” Hiroyuki Ueno, an economist at SuMi TRUST, said in a note ahead of the GDP release.
Ueno pointed out that the outlook for the first half of 2023 “is positive”, with the expectation that the increase in the price of imports will be contained thanks to the stabilization of inflation in Europe and the United States.
