TOKYO, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal year 2020 shrank 4.6 percent in real terms, down for the second straight year, government statistics revealed Tuesday.
The figure logged the largest annual contraction on record since data began to be compiled in fiscal 1955, according to the preliminary data released by the Cabinet Office.
The previous record decrease was a 3.6-percent shrinkage in fiscal 2008 marked in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, government statistics showed the country's economy in the January-March period contracted an annualized real 5.1 percent compared to the previous quarter, the first shrinkage in three quarters, due to a second state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decrease in real GDP, the total value of goods and services produced in the country adjusted for inflation, corresponds to a 1.3-percent contraction on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis, government data showed.
Amid a resurgence of COVID-19 infections since November, the government declared the second state of emergency in early January for the Tokyo metropolitan area. It was expanded it to 11 out of Japan's 47 prefectures within a week before it was fully lifted in late March.
The emergency state requiring people to stay at home and restaurants and bars to shorten opening hours led to a sharp drop of 1.4 percent in private consumption.
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