Japan economy grows 1.9 percent in July-Sept

TOKYO (AP) — Japan said Thursday that its economy expanded at a 1.9 percent annualized pace in July-September, half the pace of the previous quarter, as export growth and consumer demand remained sluggish.

The government said that preliminary data showed that the economy grew 0.5 percent compared with the previous quarter, which was slower than the previous quarter-on-quarter increase of 0.6 percent.

The momentum of Japan's recovery appears to be lagging: the real annualized growth rate was 3.8 percent in April-June and 4.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has spurred the recovery that began late last year with an ambitious program of monetary easing and government spending, but corporate investment and personal incomes have yet to rebound, raising concerns over longer term prospects for growth.