Japan's government slashed its economic growth forecast for this year largely due to weaker exports. But the forecast, which serves as a basis for compiling the state budget and the government's fiscal policy, was still nearly twice as high as private-sector projections.

The economy is now expected to expand 0.9% in price-adjusted real terms in the fiscal year ending in March 2020, according to the Cabinet Office's projections. That marked a downgrade from the government's previous forecast of 1.3% growth. The government estimated 1.2% growth for the following fiscal year starting April 2020.

The downgrade largely stemmed from a slowdown in exports, which the government expects to grow just 0.5%, compared to 3.0% in the previous assessment in January. This would make export growth for the current fiscal year the slowest since fiscal 2012, when they contracted with 1.7%, according to a Cabinet Office official. But the government saw the weakening exports being offset by robust corporate investment and private spending.