Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday that he is "not confident" Japan's economy will achieve growth in fiscal year (FY) 2009 starting April next year.

"Looking at conditions at home and abroad, I see few factors that will contribute to positive growth," Yosano told reporters.

If the negative growth projection for fiscal 2009 is formally adopted by the cabinet in January, it will be the first time that the Japanese government has produced a contraction forecast for a fiscal year.

On Monday Yosano said that Japan's economy sank into its first recession in seven years in the July-September quarter as the world's second largest economy has witnessed economic contractions in two quarters in a row.

Japan's gross domestic product (GDP), or the total value of the nation's goods and services, shrank for a second consecutive quarter in the third quarter of 2008, down by an annualized 0.4 percent in real terms, following an annualized 3.7 percent contraction in the second quarter, according to a preliminary report released by the cabinet office earlier Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2008)