— See Separate Table For Details of Individual Forecasts
TOKYO (MNI) – Japanese real average household spending appears to
be unchanged from a year earlier in February, after four months of
drops, according to the median forecast of analysts surveyed by Market
News International.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will release
the data at 0830 JST on Tuesday, March 29 (2330 GMT Monday).
Household spending posted -1.0% y/y in January, -3.3% in December,
-0.4% in November and -0.4% in October. It was flat in September.
Going forward, economists expect a slump in spending as the deadly
earthquake and tsunami swept through many fishing ports and farmlands
along Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast on March 11.
The disaster also knocked down cooling systems of the Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, sparking Japan’s worst nuclear radiation
crisis and prompting Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the plant, to
impose scheduled power cuts to Tokyo suburbs and nearby cities.
Akira Maekawa, senior economist at Global Futures and Forex (GFT)
said, “It is possible that personal consumption will show weakness due
to a worsening in consumer sentiment caused by the earthquake.”
On a seasonally adjusted basis, consumption in February is expected
to have risen 0.3% on month, posting the second consecutive m/m gain,
following +1.0% in January.
skodama@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4838 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$]
