Japan’s Household Spending, Retail Sales Decline in October
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Japan’s household spending dropped for an eighth straight month and retail sales fell slightly in October, even as the unemployment rate remained at the lowest in two decades.
Declines in household spending and retail sales have narrowed since August, when poor weather hurt consumer demand, indicating that the gloom among consumers is lifting. But the tight job market hasn’t resulted in sustained significant wage gains, a key link in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s long-sought virtuous cycle in which higher corporate profits drive pay and spending higher. The release of industrial production on Wednesday will offer more details on the state of Japan’s economy in the final quarter of 2016.