According to a Nikkei news survey, 70% of over 100 major Japanese retailers expect their sales to drop after the sales tax is raised to 8% from the current 5% in April
- Of these firms, 61% said the sales drop would continue through June
- 75% of the firms predicted that the impact from the tax hike would taper off until around the end of September
- 72% of the respondents said they expected a rush of demand ahead of the consumption tax increase
- Of these firms, 37 expected a spike in demand to occur in March
- Asked about how much of a sales drop they expect, 39 companies, the largest number, said 5% or less, 25 said between 5% and 10%, and seven of the respondents predicted a drop of more than 10% in sales.
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In a separate survey consumer behavior survey jointly conducted by The Nikkei and NTTCom Online Marketing Solutions, 46% of 1,096 people said they would rein in their spending
