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Japan's August household spending rises for 9th month, but wages fall

11 Comments
By Leika Kihara and Kaori Kaneko

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11 Comments
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Does anyone know how household spending is actually calculated?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

So, household spending increased prior to the sales tax increase. What a big surprise that is, NOT! However, salaries decreased in the same period. With decreased salaries and increased sales tax means households will have far less disposable income. This will have to result in a downward trend in spending further punching the Japanese economy down the pooper.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Well, I'd wait on being optimistic about household spending until the months after the increase in the consumption tax.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Increased due the consumption tax increase and the retired population drawing down their savings.  Not factors that position Japan for long-term economic improvement.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Totally expected and predicted. There were lines at my local discount supermarket prior to October 1st with people buying non-perishable goods that were scheduled to go up after the tax increase.

One thing that hopefully WONT happen is seeing consumer debt increase!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Picture is Japan in a nutshell. Mom and her mother with single kid out shopping for parachute pants on a Tuesday while the husband is hour 8 into his 14hr shift.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Japan in a nutshell. Mom and her mother with single kid out shopping for parachute pants on a Tuesday while the husband is hour 8 into his 14hr shift.

It would be better if Mom and her mother were both working 14 hr shifts too, and the single kid was in day-care?

Invalid CSRF

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

In 2017 Japan cut corporate tax rates and reduces their total tax burden by as high as 25% in order for them to raise income levels and help spur the economy. The result: lower income, higher taxes that greatly affect those with the least amount of income, and record savings numbers for Japanese companies.

Great job Abe.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

stands ready to act if risks heighten enough to derail Japan's recovery.

What recovery? You just said that the wages has been falling for the past 8 months. In reality it's much longer than that, but those are just the official numbers.

Abe pledged on Friday to deliver "all possible steps" if risks to the economy intensified, signaling his readiness to boost fiscal spending if this month's sales tax hike triggers a sharp downturn in growth.

Abe needs to hire better economic advisers, with actual real life experience and solid understanding of free market economics, so they can teach him that "growth" is not measured by GDP figures, but by indicators such as productivity growth, investments, real wage increase, savings, and few other important figures. Fiscal spending is the last thing he needs to do. Japan needs a major economic and political reform, but i don't think Abe has the capacity to do that. I don't think he has the understanding of what kind of reforms are needed, let alone the political will to do it. I just googled who is the minister of trade and economy. A guy that graduated political science and has been working in government for over 30 years. A typical career bureaucrat. A clueless leech. I bet if you ask him how many economic books have you read in your entire life, he won't be able to tell you even one. To expect an actual reform from these bureaucratic tapeworms is wishful thinking.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Must be gravity running in the other way. How can house-hold spending increases ???. when salaries are down all . Not the Japan, that is real.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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