The economy ministry was also cautiously optimistic, saying that "industrial production has bottomed out and shows some signs of picking up."
Japan Remains Unsteady
Japan's overall economic picture remains unsteady. But the nation squeaked out of recession in the last quarter of 2012 with modest growth that, analysts said, would provide a foundation for a strengthening economy.
The 0.2% expansion in GDP on an annualized basis in the quarter to December was welcome news for Abe, whose first few months in office have seen renewed optimism over the state of the economy.
Markets have cheered his policies, sending the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index soaring in the past couple of months, while speculation over further monetary easing measures has helped push down the value of the yen, although Tokyo has faced criticism it was engineering the unit's decline.
Manufacturers have been helped by the weakening in the yen, after the unit hit a record around the 75-level against the dollar in late 2011 and remained strong through most of last year.
The dollar bought 94.10 yen in morning forex trade on Friday.
A strong yen makes Japanese products less competitive overseas and shrinks the yen value of repatriated foreign income.
In 2012, Japan's factory production slipped 0.3% after a decline in 2011 when industry was hammered by the quake-tsunami disaster and Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Japanese consumer prices slipped 0.3% last month from a year earlier, while the jobless rate inched up to 4.3% in February from 4.2% in January.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
