The nation's monthly household spending in 2000 dropped 0.6 percent from the previous year to an average of 340,977 yen, marking the third consecutive annual downswing, the government said Tuesday.
The real-term decline in family expenditures follows a 1.8 percent setback in 1998 and a 1.7 percent drop in 1999, the Public Management, Home Affairs, and Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said in a preliminary report.
On the other hand, the wage earner consumption propensity, which gauges the amount of disposable income allotted to household spending, increased 0.6 percentage point to 72.1 percent in 2000 for the second straight year of growth.