Japan

Japan's economy expanded by a much faster-than-expected annualized 3.1% in the second quarter, rebounding from a slump at the start of the year thanks to a strong rise in consumption and backing the case for another near-term interest rate hike, Reuters reported. The Bank of Japan had forecast that a solid economic recovery will help inflation sustainably hit its 2% target, and justify raising interest rates further after it hiked them last month in its continued quest to exit years of massive monetary stimulus.

Japan’s economy rebounded to growth in the second quarter on the back of an increase in private consumption, in a sign that a virtuous cycle long sought by the central bank linking rising incomes to increased spending may be starting to emerge, Bloomberg reported. Gross domestic product expanded at an annualized pace of 3.1% in the three months through June versus the prior period, the Cabinet Office reported Thursday. The reading, which exceeded the 2.3% consensus estimate, came after the economy contracted by a revised 2.3% in the first quarter.

Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. reported a smaller loss for the last quarter compared to a year earlier, the Associated Press reported. Tokyo-based SoftBank’s losses totaled 174 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the April-June quarter, the company said Wednesday. It racked up nearly 478 billion yen in red ink in the same period of last year. Quarterly sales rose 9% at SoftBank, which has investments in various technology companies including American office-space-sharing WeWork; Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, and telecommunications company T-Mobile.