Japan's July Household Spending Rises Less than Expected

Household spending rose 0.7% year-on-year in July, after a revised 4.3% fall in June, government data showed on Tuesday. That was weaker than a median market forecast for a 2.9% gain in a Reuters poll.

The modest rise in July was partly due to a sharp contraction in the same month last year, when household spending slumped 7.6% year-on-year as consumers delayed spending on things such as travel and overnight stays due to the health crisis.

The month-on-month figures showed a 0.9% contraction in July, the third straight month of decline, the internal affairs ministry data showed, dashing expectations for 1.1% growth.

“Face-to-face leisure services stayed weaker with worsening COVID-19 infections and the reinstatement of state of emergency curbs in Tokyo,” said Masato Koike, an economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

“Going forward, the tug-of-war between worsening infections and vaccination will keep services spending volatile.”

Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute, said continued infections could have dragged private consumption even lower in August.

Spending on food, leisure and transportation rose year-on-year while spending on consumer electronics, utility payments and face masks fell.

Separate data on Tuesday showed inflation-adjusted real wages in July rose 0.7% from the same month a year earlier, though the gain was also because of a flattered comparison with last year’s steep pandemic-driven drop.

But the data was unlikely to dispel worries that Japan’s economy is at risk of slowing down in the third quarter, as explosive growth in COVID-19 cases at home and in other parts of Asia weighs on consumer and corporate activity.

Revised gross domestic product (GDP) data on Wednesday is expected to show the economy grew faster than initially reported in the second quarter, helped by stronger business spending.

Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Daniel Leussink and Sam Holmes