Japan’s retail sales increased for a third straight month, as easing virus concerns fueled spending by consumers before the emergence of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Sales last month advanced 1.2 percent from October, as shoppers spent more on clothing and motor vehicles, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported yesterday.
Economists had expected a 1.3 percent overall gain.
Photo: Bloomberg
Spending on clothing rose more than 7 percent from October, as did outlays for vehicles, while sales of food and drink rose 0.6 percent and spending on fuel fell 2.9 percent, the ministry said.
Retail sales rose 1.9 percent more than a year earlier.
While Japan’s consumption has not jumped to the extent that it has in places such as the US, spending has increased since a fall in virus cases in September allowed state of emergency restrictions to be lifted at the end of that month. The increase shows the importance of keeping the spread of Omicron under control if consumption is to drive the economy’s recovery.
“It’s not the sort of rebound in spending that was hoped for before the state of emergency was lifted, but we’re seeing a gradual comeback,” Meiji Yasuda Research Institute economist Yuichi Kodama said.
The economy is likely to return to growth this quarter largely thanks to consumer spending, with some continued support from trade with the US and Europe, Kodama said.
The consensus forecast among analysts is for Japan to grow at an annualized pace of 6.1 percent in the final three months of this year.
While Japan has so far managed to avoid a mass outbreak of Omicron, even as the variant rampages in the US and the UK, the situation could swiftly change.
The country’s program for vaccine booster shots is yet to get into full swing, although nearly 80 percent of the population has so far been fully vaccinated.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS