Japan is expected to disclose that its economy, the world’s second largest, has contracted for the first time in a year when it unveils second quarter gross domestic product figures on Wednesday amid rising costs and weakening exports.

Japan’s slowdown, marked last week by a second consecutive quarter of contracting industrial production, brings to an end the longest period of growth since the second world war. The GDP and industrial output data together highlight the debilitating effects of soaring energy and commodities prices and the global economic downturn.