Japan growth slows as new PM readies stimulus [Video]

Japan’s growth slowed in the third quarter, official data showed Friday, as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seeks to jumpstart the world’s fourth-largest economy.

One of the fiercest typhoons to hit Japan in decades and a government “megaquake” warning weighed on factory production and other economic activity this summer.

That dragged on gross domestic product (GDP) and the country saw growth of 0.2 percent between July and September, according to a preliminary reading by the Cabinet Office.

The data met market expectations, but marked a slowdown from a revised 0.5 percent in the previous three months.

Compared with the same period a year earlier GDP grew 0.9 percent, much slower than the downwardly revised 2.2 percent in April-June.

The government is expecting a “gradual recovery” of the economy — beset for decades by stagnation and harmful deflation — chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday.

“Our country is at an …