Household spending takes 5.1% dive as Japanese tighten purse strings after tax hike www.japantimes.co.jp

Households cut their spending for the first time in almost a year in October as natural disasters disrupted business and the sales tax hike, from 8 percent to 10 percent, prompted consumers to rein in expenses.
Household spending dropped 5.1 percent in October from a year earlier, government data showed Friday, down for the first time in 11 months and the biggest year-on-year fall since March 2016 — when spending fell 5.3 percent.
“Not only is the sales tax hike hurting consumer spending but impacts from the typhoon also accelerated the decline in the spending,” said Taro Saito, executive research fellow at NLI Research Institute.
When Japan last raised the sales tax, in April 2014, household spending fell 4.6 percent to 8 percent from 5 percent.
Compared with the previous month, household spending fell 11.5 percent in October, the steepest drop since April 2014 and a faster decline than the median 9.8 percent forecast.