The Japanese economy released its preliminary GDP reading for the first quarter, which showed a rise by 0.5%, unchanged from last year's fourth quarter reading which was revised from 0.4%, beating forecasts of a contraction by 0.1%.
In the same context, the seasonally adjusted annual GDP reading showed that growth accelerated to 2.1% from 1.6% in the previous quarter's reading, in contrast to expectations of a contraction at 0.2%, while the annual preliminary reading of the index showed a 0.2% growth in line with expectations versus a contraction of 0.3% in the previous.