Overall monthly household spending averaged 317,133 yen in 2000, down 0.9 percent from 1999 for the eighth straight year of decline, the government said Thursday.

Household spending is a leading gauge of personal spending, which accounts for some 60 percent of gross domestic product.

Expenditure moved down 1.7 percent for food in 2000 and 6.8 percent for clothes and shoes, both contractions for the 10th consecutive year, according to the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs and Posts and Telecommunications.

Outlays, on the other hand, increased 4.9 percent for transportation and telecommunications services and 1.3 percent for utilities services, the ministry said.

Data released last week show spending by wage earners' households came to an average of 340,977 yen, down 0.6 percent for the third successive yearly decrease.

The propensity for wage earners to spend, which measures the amount of disposable income earmarked for household spending, improved to 72.1 percent, up 0.6 percentage point.

The ministry also said the nation's overall spending averaged 392,428 yen per household in December, up 2.1 percent from a year before for the first real-term upturn in three months.

Outlays increased 14.2 percent for transportation and telecommunications services in the month, 15.4 percent for housing-related matters and 18.3 percent for education.

But expenditures shrank 2.7 percent for foodstuffs, 7.3 percent for clothes and shoes, and 1.1 percent for leisure and entertainment, according to the ministry.

Spending by wage earners' families inched up 0.8 percent to 420,503 yen on average, with propensity to consume at 75.8 percent, compared with 69.3 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Furthermore, the ministry said average overall household expenditures came to 332,489 yen per family in the October-December quarter, up 0.3 percent from the year-earlier period.