Japan slashes GDP forecasts, expects biggest contraction in decades this fiscal year

Shopping area in Shibuya in Tokyo. -File pix

TOKYO: Japan sharply downgraded its gross domestic product forecasts for this fiscal year, expecting the world's third-largest economy to suffer its biggest contraction in over two decades amid the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government expects the economy to shrink 4.5% this fiscal year to March 2021 compared with January's forecast for 1.4% growth. That would be the biggest contraction since comparable data became available in 1994.