TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - A negative contribution from domestic demand, together with a sustained fall in net exports pressured second quarter GDP, a senior Cabinet Office official said. In the second quarter, domestic demand accounted for 0.7 percentage points of negative growth, the largest negative contribution since the fourth quarter of 1999 when it ran at 1.5 percentage points, according to Cabinet Office data. Among domestic parameters, residential investment fell 8.8 pct in the second quarter from the first, marking the largest quarter-on-quarter decline since the second quarter of 1997, when it dropped 10.5 pct. Non-residential investment fell 2.8 pct in the second quarter, the largest fall since the fourth quarter of 1998, when it declined 4.5 pct. Net exports made a 0.1 percentage point negative contribution, marking the fourth consecutive quarterly negative contribution. This development came in spite of the fact that imports of goods and services fell 2.5 pct quarter-on-quarter, the largest fall since the first quarter of 1991 when imports declined 5.5 pct. Imports also marked the second straight quarterly fall, the first such development since they fell for seven consecutive quarters between the second quarter of 1997 and the fourth quarter of 1998. On the other hand, private consumption rose 0.5 pct in the second quarter, marking the second consecutive quarterly rise. Katsuki Oda, director of the national accounts department of the Economic and Social Research Institute, research arm of the Cabinet Office, said that spending on clothing, hotel accommodation and tobacco contributed to the gain in the second quarter. According to an estimate by the Cabinet Office, Japan needs to see 1.4 pct growth in the remaining quarters to attain the official growth target of 1.7 pct in the year to March 2002. If GDP sees zero growth, Japan will sustain an up to 0.5 pct GDP contraction for the year to March 2002.