— Japan Sep Household Spending -0.9% Y/Y; MNI Forecast +0.5%
TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s average household spending marked the first
decline in eight months in September as lower tuitions and rents offset the
effects of subsidy-backed car purchases, data from the Ministry ofInternal
Affairs and Communication Tuesday showed.
Household spending stood at Y266,705 in September, down a real 0.9%
from a year earlier following a 1.8% rise in August.
The September reading was worse than the median forecast for a 0.5%
increase in a MNI survey of economists.
In September, spending on education, including university tuitions,
dropped 23.7% on year, pushing down the overall spending by 1.39 percentage
points. Housing costs including rents fell 14.5%, trimming spending by 1.03
points.
Meanwhile, spending on transportation and communication, which
includes automobile purchases, rose 12.3% on the year after a 8.5% increase in
August, adding 1.58 percentage points to household spending.
In nominal terms, household spending declined by 1.2% in September
following a 1.4% rise in August.
The average real income of salaried workers’ households rose 0.1% to
Y422,046 in September, marking a second straight rise.
Real disposable income in the average salaried workers’ household
declined 0.1% in September, the first drop in two months.
tokyo@marketnews.com
** MNI Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-6860-4821 **
–email: msato@mni-news.com
[TOPICS: MAJDS$,M$A$$$,M$J$$$]
