Japan Household Spending Continues To Fall

(RTTNews) - Japan's household spending declined for the eighth straight month in July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.

Household spending registered a larger-than-expected annual fall of 3.6 percent in July, following June's 3.3 percent decrease. Spending has been declining since last December. Economists had expected a drop of 1.6 percent.

On a monthly basis, household spending gained 0.5 percent, reversing a 6.3 percent drop in the prior month. However, this was weaker than economists' forecast of 2.6 percent. Data showed that real income of working households decreased by real 3.8 percent from the previous year.