Billing by credit card companies edged up 0.6 percent in January from a year earlier for the second-smallest gain on record, the trade ministry said Friday in a preliminary service industry report.

Sluggish consumption also caused a 10.1 percent tumble in sales by advertising agencies, their first double-digit decline since February 1999, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

Of the remaining four business service industries, contracts at leasing companies fell 5.2 percent, orders at engineering firms 15.5 percent, and sales of rental companies 5.2 percent. Sales for information service providers, however, rose 4.2 percent.

Golf-course operators reported an increase in sales of 7.7 percent due in part to the warmer than usual winter weather, the ministry said.

Credit card billing at supermarkets fell 6.6 percent, the largest margin on record, and dragged down the overall billing to the smallest rise since the 0.4 percent gain in March 1998. The 1998 figure was logged in reaction to the buying spree a year earlier prior to the April 1997 hike of the consumption tax rate, a METI official said.

Credit card billing has continued to rise since comparative data became available in October 1994 on the shift to credit cards from cash deals, the official said.

Billing at department stores and at hotels both rose 3.5 percent.

The decline in overseas credit card billing since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States has recouped to show a 1.6 percent fall in January, compared with drops of 16.6 percent in October, 19.7 percent in November and 6.1 percent in December, the official said.

Leasing firms' contracts for information devices with telecommunications carriers rose 9.3 percent, METI said.