Japanese firms cut their investment in business expansion during the second quarter, indicating continued fears about Japan's economic growth.

受对日本经济发展之担忧的影响，各企业纷纷在第二季度削减业务扩张投资。

Companies spent 7.7tn yen¹ ($101bn; £62bn) on plant and equipment, a 7.8% decline from a year earlier, the ministry² of finance said.

This was the first year-on-year decline in investment in four quarters.

Japan's economy is currently in a recession, and has contracted for three consecutive³ quarters.

"There are negative tendencies in the overseas markets due to concerns of a global economic slowdown," Junko Nishioka of RBS Securities told the BBC.

"That is driving the negative sentiment among Japanese manufacturers," she added.

Yen factor

A slowdown in key markets such as the US and Europe has dealt a double blow to the Japanese manufacturers.

First, demand from these two markets has declined, hurting growth in Japan's export-dependent economy.

To make matters worse, uncertainty⁴ about growth in the developed economies has seen investors⁵ flee to safe-haven assets such as the yen, sending the value to the Japanese currency to record levels in recent days.

The yen has remained strong despite two interventions⁶ by the government to try and weaken it.