Bank of Japan downgrades growth forecasts

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Bank of Japan downgrades growth forecasts

Eurozone crisis blamed as central bank says Japan’s export-reliant economy will shrink 0.4% this financial yearThe Bank of Japan forecast the country’s economy will contract in the current financial year but kept policy steady on Tuesday, expecting exports to emerging markets and reconstruction after last year’s earthquake to help fuel a steady recovery later in 2012. BOJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa, however, warned that Europe’s debt crisis remained the biggest threat to Japan’s recovery, already clouded by recent rises in the yen against the euro and slowing global demand for Japanese goods.