Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia in Tokyo on Thursday, March 8, 2007

Japan today announced that it has revised upward its economic-growth data for the October-December quarter, confirming that that the world's second largest economy grew at a robust pace during the past quarter.

The government said Monday that GDP (Gross Domestic Product), expanded by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, or an annualized rate of 5.5%. The figure compares with the preliminary figure of quarterly growth of 1.2%, or 4.8% annualized issued last month.

The upward revision was primarily because of stronger-than-expected capital spending. Corporate expenditure on plant and equipment expanded by 3.1% from the third quarter, higher than a 2.2% increase in the earlier announcement. Another contributor was public-sector investment, which increased 3.7%, higher than the 2.7% rise announced previously.

The growth rate for household consumption, the main driver of the economic expansion in the fourth quarter, was left unchanged at 1.1%. The strong growth in the fourth quarter came after unseasonably cool weather in the summer pushed down consumer spending to an unusually low level during the July-September period.

Analysts say that the economic growth for the first quarter 2007 is likely to slow sharply from the fourth quarter as consumption returns to a slower pace.