Household consumption spending averaged 300,903 yen per month in Japan in 2005, down 0.7 percent from the previous year in real terms after adjustment for price changes, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
The decline was the first in two years, reflecting a drop among wage-earning households, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
Transportation and communications spending dropped by 1.7 percent while spending on education decreased by 8.6 percent after a rise in the previous year.