Japan paints darker picture of its economic health

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TOKYO, Aug 7 (Agencies): Japan painted a darker picture of its economic health Thursday, warning of deteriorating exports, output and corporate profits - signals that may point toward a contraction of the world's second largest economy.

"The economy is recently weakening," the Cabinet Office said in its monthly economic report for August.

Although it did not include the word "recession," the government notably left out any reference to an economic "recovery" for the first time in more than six years.

The government's increasing pessimism toward corporate performance is a gloomy sign for Japan's economy, which had relied on a robust business sector to drive its recovery. But a slowdown in the US economy is battering Japanese exporters, many of whom depend on the American market for a large part of their business.