Japan Retail Sales Advance 3.7% On Year In December

(RTTNews) - The value of retail sales in Japan was up 3.7 percent on year in December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday - coming in at 16.123 trillion yen.

That beat forecasts for an increase of 3.4 percent and was up from 2.8 percent in November.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, sales fell 0.7 percent after adding 1.9 percent in the previous month.

Commercial sales were down 0.5 percent on month and up 3.6 percent on year at 57.219 trillion yen, while wholesale sales fell 0.5 percent on month and gained 3.5 percent on year at 41.096 trillion yen.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, retail sales were down 0.3 percent on quarter and up 2.6 percent on year at 44.160 trillion yen.

For all of 2024, retail sales were up 2.5 percent to 167.179 trillion yen.