Japan's shrinking GDP points to recession, PM under pressure (5)

Net exports fell 0.7 percentage point from GDP on a quarterly basis, official figures showed today, while machinery orders, a key gauge of capital spending, declined along with industrial output.

Exports plummeted 10 percent year-on-year in September, the most since the earthquake and tsunami according to the latest trade statistics.

The government said Monday that shipments from export-reliant Japan had fallen to their lowest in five-quarters on waning demand in debt-plagued Europe and from falling orders in emerging economies, also affected by the global economic slowdown.

In nominal terms, or unadjusted for price change, Japan's economy shrank 0.9 percent and the government also said earlier that export prices had also decreased by 0.4 percent from a year earlier, with import prices rising 0.1 percent -- the figures also weighing heavily on recession-headed Japan.

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