— Japan Jan Retail Sales +1.9% Y/Y; MNI Median F’cast -0.2%
— Japan Jan Retail Sales Post 2nd Y/Y Rise In Row; Dec 2.5%
— Japan Jan Retail Car Sales +24.3% Y/Y; Dec +14.9%
— Japan Jan Retail Machinery Sales -12.2% Y/Y; Dec -9.5%

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s retail sales unexpectedly rose in January,
buoyed by brisk demand for automobiles, while cold weather continued to
support winter clothing sales, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry released Tuesday showed.

Car sales sagged in most of 2011 after the government ended
subsidies for buying low-emission vehicles in September 2010 but they
are now being supported by the resumption of the program in December
last year.

Retail sales rose 1.9% in January from a year earlier, marking a
second straight year-on-year gain following a 2.5% rise in December, and
beating the median forecast of a 0.2% dip in a Market News International
survey of economists.

Retail sales of automobiles rose 24.3% from a year earlier in
January, posting the fourth consecutive y/y rise after rising 14.9% in
December. It was the largest gain since +24.7% in August 2010.

In January, retail sales of clothing rose 1.4% on year after +4.4%
in December, marking the 10th straight y/y gain.

Sales of fuel showed a rare drop, down 0.6% on year, after +5.7% in
the previous month, as heavy snowfalls hampered deliveries of gasoline
and heating oil to some areas and sales a year earlier jumped 11.9%.

Meanwhile, retail sales of machinery and equipment including
consumer electronics posted a sixth straight on-year drop, down 12.2% in
January, following -9.5% in December and a record fall of 51.9% in
November.

Other details from the latest data:

Commercial sales, or combined sales at the wholesale and retail
levels (y/y): January -2.1%, a third straight fall.

Sales at the wholesale level (y/y): January -3.6%, also the third
straight fall.

Large retail store sales on a same-store adjusted basis (y/y):
January -1.0%, a sixth straight y/y fall.

Large retail store sales, unadjusted (y/y): January +0.1%, a second
straight rise.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **

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