Japan’s Sputtering Economy Likely Stalled Before Trump’s Tariffs

Japan’s economy likely suffered a contraction in the first three months of this year, signaling underlying fragility even before US tariff measures started hitting the country in earnest, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Gross domestic product adjusted for inflation shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter on an annualized basis, according to the median estimate of economists. That result would mean the first quarterly drop in a year.