Japan’s Households Continue to Cut Outlays as Inflation Hits

(Bloomberg) -- Japans households continued to cut back on spending as sticky inflation discouraged discretionary outlays..

The decline narrowed from a 6.3% drop in the previous month and compared with economists forecast of a 2.9% retreat..

Even with workers having achieved large pay gains last fiscal year, real wages have fallen for 22 consecutive months, with data due Monday expected to show the downward trend extending for another month. ..

Spending continues to be weak due to the impact of inflation, but on a month-on-month basis, it turned positive for the first time in five months," said Yuichi Kodama, economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute..

Japan barely avoided entering a recession in the final three months of the last year, as strong corporate investment offset weak private spending..