Japan's Economic Planning Agency chief Taichi Sakaiya speaks at an interview at his ministry office in Tokyo March 21. Sakaiya said he hoped conditions would improve enough to enable him to declare an economic recovery in June - after the economy dipped back into recession in the last six months of 1999. "If economic conditions continue to improve over the next two to three months, I think we can say that the economy has started to recover in a self-sustaining manner," Sakaiya told Reuters.

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