TOKYO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan's economy contracted 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter, the government said in a report on Friday, with the reading unchanged from preliminary data.

According to the Cabinet Office, the economy here contracted at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter, marking the first contraction in nine quarters.

The final reading for Japan's economic contraction in the recording period confirms that Japan's nine straight quarters of economic expansion have come to a halt, bringing an end to the nation's longest run of expansion since late in the 1980s.

Real gross domestic product, which means the total value of goods and services produced in Japan and adjusted for inflation, equates to a 0.2 percent drop from the October-December quarter, with the reading unchanged from preliminary data on May 16.

The data set in the period pointed to weaker private consumption and capital expenditure as being responsible for the drop in the recording quarter.