Japan Household Spending Falls For Third Month

(RTTNews) - Japan's household spending declined for the third straight month in February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported Tuesday.

Household spending dropped 1.8 percent month-on-month in February, a sharper decline than the 1.0 percent decrease in January. This was the third consecutive fall and worse than forecast of a 0.7 percent decline.

Spending on food dropped 0.5 percent, while expenditure on entertainment grew 10.8 percent.

On a monthly basis, household spending grew 1.5 percent, in contrast to the 2.5 percent decline seen in January.