Japan Personal Spending Rebounds More than Expected

2025-02-06 23:38 By Farida Husna 1 min. read

Household spending in Japan increased by 2.7% year-on-year in December 2024, easily beating market estimates of 0.2% and marking the first growth in five months.

This was the strongest rise since August 2022, boosted by a winter bonus.

Expenditure bounced back for clothing and footwear (4.1% vs -13.7% in November), transport and communication (6.5% vs -0.5%), culture & recreation (0.7% vs -2.9%), other consumption (5.2% vs -2.7%), and miscellaneous items (13.1% vs -5.9%).

At the same time, spending grew further for both housing (15.8% vs 18.7%) and medical care (4.6% vs 0.8% ).

Simultaneously, education expenditure sharply eased (3.8% vs 31.9%) amid continued falls in spending on food (-1.2% vs -0.6%), fuel, light & water charges (-2.4% vs -2.9%), and furniture and household goods (-1.4% vs -13.8%).

Monthly, personal spending rose by 2.3%, accelerating from a 0.4% gain in November and defying expectations of a 0.5% decrease.

This also marked the third consecutive month of expansion.



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