The Finance Ministry on Wednesday upgraded its quarterly assessment of the nation's regional economies for the third straight quarter, noting brighter signs were evident in personal consumption.

Production continued to rise in many regions, backed by strong exports of automobiles and digital and mobile phone equipment, the ministry said in a report of economic assessments made over the last three months by the 11 regional bureau chiefs.

"The economy as a whole is mildly recovering, although the pace is different in each area," the ministry's report says.

The previous report, released in January, said the economy was generally picking up despite different conditions in each region.

The latest report also says that all of the 11 regions expect corporate profits to rise in fiscal 2004, confirming the recent uptrend in corporate sentiment.

Eight out of the 11 regions saw upward revisions of the overall economic assessment. The assessment of the other three regions remained unchanged, but the economy continued to get better or trace a mild recovery, the report says.

In particular, Shikoku saw brighter consumption in such fields as clothing, flat-panel television sets and DVDs.

Production remained active in all regions except for Tohoku, where production was unchanged.

In the Tokai region, one of its major industries -- automobiles -- continued to show a high level of production.