Japanese Economy Remains Weak (5/6/99)
TOKYO (AP) _ The Japanese economy remained weak today as figures showed that new vehicle sales fell for the 25th consecutive month and household spending also was stuck in a slump.
Sales in Japan of new cars, trucks and buses fell 11 percent in April from the year before, to 269,388 vehicles, the Japan
Automobile Dealers' Association said today.
Hardest hit were sales of new trucks, which plunged 15.8 percent to 71,773 vehicles. Car sales dropped 9.1 percent to 196,383, the association said.
The government also said household spending was down in March for the second straight month.
The average Japanese household spent $2,937, down 1.9 percent in real terms from the same month a year earlier, Japan's Management and Coordination Agency said today.
The slip followed a 3.8 percent fall in February that came after a rise in January, when household spending rose 1.4 percent for the largest year-on-year increase since September 1997.
The figures are the latest sign that consumer spending _ hurt by a stubborn economic slump, rising unemployment and a wave of
corporate job-cutting _ remains weak as Japanese worry about
holding on to their jobs.
In late April, the government said Japan's unemployment rate in March shot up to yet another record high of 4.8 percent, as
corporate restructuring efforts force more people out of work.
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