Japan makes meek exit from recession

After stumbling out of recession last quarter, Japan's economy looks set to do something familiar this year: slumber.

Helped by higher exports, the country's GDP grew an annualized 2.2 percent in the last quarter of 2014, the government said on Monday. But the recovery from six months of contraction was weaker than forecast.

For all of 2014, the world's third-largest economy stagnated, neither shrinking nor expanding as the recession, which was triggered by a sales tax hike in April, canceled out the growth that occurred at the beginning and end of the year. Wages, meanwhile, fell 0.1 percent.