Japan's household spending posted an annual drop for the third straight month in October, though the pace of decline slowed, as consumer sentiment struggled to stage a convincing recovery after coronavirus curbs ended.
The world's third-largest economy has lagged other nations in its recovery from the health crisis, mostly due to sluggish consumption. Analysts expect consumer sentiment to pick up this quarter as local COVID-19 infections fell.
Household spending fell 0.6% in October from a year earlier, after a 1.9% decline in September and a 3.0% drop in August, government data showed, matching the median market forecast in a Reuters poll.