Tokyo  - Japanese gross domestic product declined in the third quarter by an annualized 1.8 per cent, according to a revised government estimate, contracting more sharply than in an earlier, initial estimate.

For the July-September period, the Japanese government had initially estimated a contract at an annualized rate of 0.4 per cent.

The sharper contraction only confirms a second quarter of shrinking GDP, clarifying that Japan's economy has plummeted into the textbook definition of recession.

The April-June period saw a decline of 0.5 per cent. (dpa)