Japan’s retail sales grew for the third straight month in May despite continuing restrictions related to the pandemic and the unemployment rate rose further, official data revealed Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Retail sales grew at a pace of 8.2 percent year-on-year in May, but slower than the 11.9 percent increase in April, data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. <\/p>\n
However, the annual growth rate was faster than the expected increase of 7.9 percent and marked the third consecutive increase.<\/p>\n
At the same time, retail sales fell 0.4 percent in May from April, when sales declined 4.6 percent.<\/p>\n
Consumer spending is likely to remain unchanged from the first quarter levels in the second quarter, Tom Learmouth, an economist at Capital Economics, said.<\/p>\n