Japan economic growth halves in September quarter Tokyo - Japan said on Thursday that growth halved in the July-September quarter as exports weakened and consumer spending slowed, but analysts were divided over what the figure meant for Tokyo's drive to fire up the economy. The once-anaemic economy has lately been growing faster than other G7 nations as a policy blitz led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe helped push down the yen, giving a boost to exporters and sparking a stock market rally. That has stoked optimism over Japan's prospects. But official data Thursday showed the world's third-largest economy expanded at an annualised rate of 1.9 percent in the last quarter, a marked slowdown from the 3.8 percent rise in the previous three months. However, the figure is higher than the 1.7 percent increase forecast in a poll of economists by the Wall Street Journal. Tokyo's Nikkei stock index closed up 2.12 percent, helped by a weakening yen. On a quarter-on-quarter basis the economy grew 0.5 percent, slightly higher than expectations but well down from the 0.9 percent increase in the previous three months. The figures mean Japan's headline-grabbing growth in the first half of the year has now fallen behind the US economy, which expanded at a 2.8 percent annualised rate in the three months to September. Analysts have been warning that Tokyo's bold pro-growth programme -- a mix of big government spending and central bank monetary easing -- is not enough on its own without promised economic reforms. The proposed shake-up, including loosening rigid labour laws and signing wide-ranging free trade deals, are seen as key to ushering in lasting change in an economy plagued by years of deflation. On Wednesday legislators passed a bill that paves the way for an opening up of the electricity sector, but other key reforms have so far been mostly talk. That has raised the prospect of the Bank of Japan having to expand its already unprecedented monetary easing measures, la