Tokyo, Sep 8 (IANS): Japan's economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9 per cent from April to June, increased from the preliminary growth of 1.3 per cent, reflecting stronger capital investment in areas such as digitalisation, government data showed Wednesday.

Real gross domestic product, or the total value of goods and services manufactured in the country adjusted for inflation, increased 0.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis from the January-March period, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Cabinet Office.

The revised figure was slightly better than an averagely predicted annual growth of 1.8 per cent by private-sector economists surveyed by local media.

However, the GDP increase declined far from offsetting the revised contraction of 4.2 per cent on an annualized basis from January to March in which Japan saw a resurgence of Covid-19 infection cases.

The rise in capital expenditure initially reported 1.7 per cent was upgraded to a 2.3 per cent rise, considering brisk business investments in the reporting quarter suggested in Finance Ministry data released last week.

A government official said that business spending on digitalization has been on the rise.

Accounting for over half of the country's GDP, private consumption was slightly improved from a 0.8 per cent growth to 0.9 per cent.

However, services expenditures remained sluggish amid a third Covid-19 state of emergency in which the government requested people to refrain from going out and restaurants to close early and not serve alcohol.

Under the shadow of the resurgence of Covid-19 infection cases, a measure of the emergency state over the virus was implemented in Tokyo and some other regions lasting for nearly two months and ended in late June in most areas except for the southern Okinawa prefecture.

Exports and imports expanded 2.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively, both contracted 0.1 per cent from the preliminary numbers.

Nominal GDP, before being adjusted for inflation, slipped by 0.1 per cent, or an annual rate of 0.5 per cent, in the reporting quarter, revised down from a 0.2 per cent annualized growth initially reported.