Japan’s retail sales fall for sixth straight month in August, signal renewed pressure on policymakers

Retail sales in Japan fell for the sixth straight month in a row during the period of August, signaling renewed pressure on the country’s policymakers to adopt steps to bolster household spending in the economy.

Japan’s retail sales fell 1.1 percent in August from the previous month, when they rose 1.5 percent, data released by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Thursday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.6 percent drop. Compared with a year earlier, they fell 2.1 percent (forecast -1.7 percent).

Further, sales of department stores and supermarkets fell 3.6 percent from a year earlier (forecast -2.6 percent). The weak reading underscores the relative fragility in the Japanese economy, with slow wage growth and gloomy prospects of recovery weighing on household spending.

Sales of durable goods are picking up from a long slump that followed a sales-tax increase in April 2014. Sales of non-durable goods such as food and daily commodities will likely recover as a stronger yen pushes down import prices, Bloomberg reported, citing comments from Junichi Makino, Chief Japan Economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

Meanwhile, the release of employment, household spending, industrial production and inflation figures on Friday will paint a clearer picture of how the economy performed last month.