Japan's economy shrinks on weak consumer spending, auto woes

TOKYO (AP): The Japanese economy shrank at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter of this year, as consumption and exports declined, the government said Thursday.

Although unemployment has stayed relatively low in the world's fourth largest economy at about 2.6%, wage growth has been slow and prices have risen partly due to weakness of the yen against the U.S. dollar.

Quarter-to-quarter, the preliminary seasonally adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP, a measure of the value of a nation's products and services, slipped 0.5% in the January-March period, according to the Cabinet Office.

The annual rate measures what would have happened if the quarterly rate lasted a year.