Japan’s household spending surged in January to beat estimates, while the unemployment rate fell, according to official data released Friday.
January spending by households of two or more people rose a price-adjusted 2.4% from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry reported, easily beating expectations for a 0.4% rise.
The jobless rate, meanwhile, eased to 4.2% in January from December’s 4.3%, in line with forecasts.
On the downside, the core consumer price index, which excludes volatile food costs, slid 0.3% in January, down 0.2% from a year earlier, matching projections in separate surveys from both the Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters.
