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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (26476)	3/28/2005 9:04:30 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Japan Feb commercial sales up 1.8 pct year-on-year; retail sales down 2.8 pct Tuesday, March 29, 2005 1:23:43 AM afxpress.com TOKYO (AFX) - Commercial sales in Japan, or total sales at the wholesale and retail levels, rose 1.8 pct year-on-year in February, the ninth consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Sales at the wholesale level rose 3.3 pct year-on-year, the ninth consecutive month of increase. But retail sales fell 2.8 pct year-on-year, the 10th decline in 13 months Adjusted for changes in the number of stores, sales at large retail stores fell 6.7 pct year-on-year, the 12th straight month of decline In January, commercial sales rose 3.1 pct year-on-year. Retail sales increased 2.2 pct, while sales at the wholesale level rose 3.4 pct The decline in retail sales in February comes as no surprise, following the release last week of weak data for supermarket, department store and convenience store sales last month Supermarket sales fell 7.1 pct in February from a year earlier to 1.04 trln yen, the 15th decline in 16 months, the Japan Chain Stores Association reported Department store sales fell 7.0 pct from a year earlier to 522.7 bln yen, the 11th decline in 12 months, the Japan Department Stores Association said And convenience store sales on a same-store basis fell 2.5 pct to 477.5 bln yen, the 21st fall in the last 24 months, the Japan Franchise Association announced. Yet consumer spending, which underpins 55 pct of the economy, is being counted on to keep the economy on a recovery track if the nation's trade surplus -- the traditional driver of Japanese economic growth -- continues to decline Last Wednesday, the government reported that Japan's trade surplus plunged 21.7 pct in February from a year earlier, as exports rose just 1.7 pct, while imports ballooned 11.3 pct, led by more costly imports of crude oil, steel and coking coal, used in making steel Other data released earlier today also raise concern over whether consumer spending can be counted on to keep the economy growing, after it crawled out of a shallow recession in the October-December quarter by growing marginally. Earlier today, the government reported that the unemployment rate in Japan unexpectedly rose to 4.7 pct in February, from 4.5 pct the previous month, while salaried household spending last month fell a real 3.8 pct year-on-year, the third drop in four months Tomorrow the government will release preliminary industrial output data for February, while on Friday the Bank of Japan will unveil the results of its latest quarterly Tankan survey of business sentiment, providing more insight into the state of the world's second-largest economy.