Japanese Household Spending Falls 5% From Last Year

Japanese household spending in the year ended March was down 5.0 percent from a year earlier, falling at the fastest pace on record amid price rises following the consumption tax hike in April 2014, the government said Tuesday.

The drop in spending in fiscal 2014 to a nationwide household average of 248,929 yen was the largest decline since comparable data became available in fiscal 2001 ended March 2002, beating the previous record fall of 2.6 percent in fiscal 2008, when the economy was hit hard by the global recession.

With Japan’s consumer spending remaining sluggish in the aftermath of the 3-percentage-point tax increase to 8 percent, the decline, the first in three years, also came as a weaker yen lifted the prices of imported goods, while the country’s monthly average inflation-adjusted wages continued to drop in the last fiscal year.

via Mainichi

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