TOKYO (AP) ― The Japanese economy shrank during the second quarter, at an annual pace of 6.8 percent, according to government data, as spending got slammed by a tax raise that kicked in from April.

Japan’s gross domestic product, or the total output of goods and services, contracted 1.7 percent during the April-June period from the previous quarter, on a quarterly basis.

The results released Wednesday had been expected because the consumption-tax raise has weighed on spending. The question now is how long this holding off on spending may last. 

Buyers of major purchases, such as cars, rushed to beat the tax jump, somewhat inflating spending in earlier months.

The decline was the worst since the March 2011 tsunami and quake disaster in northeastern Japan that devastated this nation.

The government, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his “Abenomics” strategy, has been trying to revive the world’s third-biggest economy by freeing up regulations and encouraging the yen to rise, a move that helps exporters.

But the government is concerned about ballooning public debt and raised the consumption tax to 8 percent from 5 percent to shore up its coffers.

Previous administrations have been nervous about raising taxes for fear the economy will slide into a recession. The Japanese economy has been eking out growth or at least staying flat in recent quarters, thanks partly to Abenomics.

Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo, said the drop seen in the latest data was within his projections, but the slowdown reflected not only the tax hike but also sliding income and surging prices.

“The impact from the tax is going to be short-term,” Uneo said. “But the economy is ailing, and that’s not good.”

Offering hope for the future is public spending that will prop up growth, he said. Even then, it will be hard for any expansion to immediately and totally make up for the big drop for the latest quarter, he said.

Dramatic wage increases are not likely in Japan, and rising prices, or inflation, is also part of Abenomics, an attempt to reverse the negative spiraling of deflation, or dropping prices.