Japan’s economy narrowly avoids recession as growth figures revised

Japan's economy has struggled with meagre growth for decades [File: Eugene Hoshiko/AP]

Japan’s economy has narrowly avoided recession, underscoring the economic challenges facing the East Asian giant even as its stock market is cruising at its highest levels in decades.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew an annualised 0.4 percent between October and December, up from earlier provisional data that showed a 0.4 percent contraction, Japan’s Cabinet Office said on Monday.