Japan's Feb. household spending falls 0.5%, down for 12th month
Ideas:
Household spending, should just be a about consumer spending, and not so much about paying bills such as utility bills. But, of course, spending on utilities needs to be tracked to see how much households spend.
Of course there are positives and negatives related to household spending such as warmer temperatures in last winter might bring less utility spending but in the summer warm temperature might bring more utility spending as households increase the use of air-conditioners.
And then of course the continued inflation situation with households cutting back on some items to reduce their overall spending. So there are always positives and negatives, depending on the situation in an economy with household spending.
As the Japanese government has been implementing energy subsidies for households, maybe the subsidies are beginning to reduce overall spending on utilities in Japan too, besides a cutback on utility spending due to warmer weather and so on.
The spending on furniture and other household products, including durable goods, usually, are not daily necessity needs and might be bought once or twice a year, if at all in a year.
Stoves and heaters, as durable goods are definitely only bought once a year, if even then. How many stoves ore heaters do households need where they need to buy them every month for example.
Spending including social expenses dropped 4.8 percent, while transport and communication expenses decreased 1.1 percent, affected by a halt in production and shipping of cars following safety test rigging at Toyota Motor Corp. group firms.
Meanwhile, spending on food, which accounts for about 30 percent of household expenditures, climbed 2.0 percent, marking the first rise in 17 months, driven by an increase in dining out and purchases of beverages.
Social expenses could be anything and everything related to parties, trips, and so on, which might have been reduced due to increased inflation in Japan.
The Toyota Motor group, the largest car maker in Japan, has had some challenges recently due to quality control challenges and had to reduce production for a few weeks to get things sorted out, including one of its subsidiaries, the Daihatsu company.
Food, for the most part, has always been a major expense for most households globally, and for the lower-income groups, the percentage related to food might be higher than 30 percent.
Of course as the weather begins to improve, and the Hanami season begins, maybe more people are out and about and going to restaurants more this spring.
But at the same time, despite the beginning of the Hanami season, maybe inflation is reducing some activities of some people and maybe they are not taking long trips and or going to hotels, and or eating out as much as before the pandemic or before inflation hit the Japanese economy.
Private consumption in Japan might be more than half of Japan's GDP, but it seems that consumer spending is never where it should be in Japan for several reasons.
For one, maybe, as many Japanese workers haven't received a pay raise in many years, that has reduced consumer spending in the economy.
Second, is the ideas that Japan has begun an aged society and older workers, especially those on fixed incomes, tend to spend less.
Third, which might be related to the first idea, is more and more young Japanese workers are contract or even part-time workers, who might spend less due to their anxiety about a good job and or a good salary.
And fourth, is for the most part, Japanese overall are more savers than spenders such as those in the US who are, for the most part, more spenders and not savers.
And then there is the psychological mindset, meaning as consumers/households are constantly bombarded with not so good news about the Japanese economy, it become a self-fulfilling prophecy which leads to less spending in the Japanese economy.
Have a nice day and be safe!
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