TOKYO — Japan’s economy suffered its biggest contraction in five years in the final quarter of 2019, slowed by a sales-tax hike and a destructive typhoon.

Gross domestic product for the world’s third-biggest economy shrank an annualized 6.3% from a quarter earlier, according to data released by the Cabinet Office on Monday. The average forecast of 34 economists surveyed by the Japan Center for Economic Research was for a 3.55% fall. (Nikkei)