Japan's real wages shrank in March as inflation rising at its fastest pace in more than three years outstripped steady nominal wage growth, the government said on Monday.
The report adds to concerns that mounting cost pressure on households' real income will thwart Japan's post-pandemic recovery scenarios, even as the government lifted all coronavirus curbs by late March in an effort to foster a strong rebound in consumption.
Inflation-adjusted real wages, a key gauge of households' purchasing power, dropped 0.2% in March from a year earlier, marking the first decline since December, labor ministry data showed.