The average of household spending in Japan jumped 2.9 percent on year in August, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday – standing at 291,156 yen.
That topped forecasts for an increase of 0.3 percent following the 0.2 percent annual contraction in July.
The average of monthly income per household stood at 475,369 yen, up 2.2 percent on year, while the average of consumption expenditures per household was 317,195 yen, up 3.4 percent on year.
Individually, spending on housing jumped 15.2 percent on year, followed by education (13.3 percent), communication (8.6 percent), furniture (7.7 percent), fuel (6.8 percent), recreation (1.5 percent) and food (0.6 percent).
Spending on clothing was down 4.9 percent, and medical care was down 4.2 percent.
Also on Friday:
. The ministry said that the unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 3.4 percent in August.
That was above forecasts for 3.3 percent, which would have been unchanged from the July reading.
The job-to-applicant ratio was 1.23, beating forecasts for 1.22 and up from 1.21 in the previous month. The participation rate was 59.6, unchanged from the previous month.
The number of employed persons in August was 63.79 million, an increase of 160,000 or 0.3 percent on year.
The number of unemployed persons in August was 2.25 million, a decrease of 60,000 or 2.6 percent on year.
. The monetary base in Japan jumped 35.1 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said, coming in at 332.194 trillion yen. That follows the 33.3 percent spike in August.
Banknotes in circulation climbed an annual 5.9 percent, while coins in circulation gained 0.7 percent.
Current account balances surged 52.4 percent on year, including a 51.5 percent spike in reserve balances.
The adjusted monetary base climbed 46.3 percent to 332.512 trillion yen.
For the third quarter of 2015, the monetary base jumped 33.7 percent on year.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com