Household spending fell 1.2 percent in June from a year earlier, down for the ninth straight month, but showed signs of recovery from record falls logged due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Friday.
The decline was significantly reduced compared to a 16.2 percent plunge in May, the steepest decrease since comparable data became available in January 2001, and an 11.1 percent fall in April that was also a record at the time, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Spending in real terms by households of two or more people in the reporting month was ¥273,699 ($2,600), the ministry said. The year-on-year slide began in October last year, when the consumption tax rate was raised from 8 percent to 10 percent.