Japan Dec Retail Sales Ease 0.3% On Year

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Retail sales in Japan fell 0.3 percent on year in December, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Thursday, standing at 12.995 trillion yen.

That missed forecasts for a 0.3 percent annual gain after the revised 1.1 percent contraction to 11.03 trillion yen in November.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, retail sales were down 1.2 percent versus forecasts for a 0.2 percent decline after the 0.2 percent gain a month earlier.

For the fourth quarter, retail sales were down 0.8 percent on year to 34.848 trillion yen. For all of 2009, retail sales were down 2.3 percent to 132.312 trillion yen.

Sales from large retailers fell an annual 4.6 percent to 2.069 trillion yen. That was better than forecasts for a 7.3 percent fall after the revised 9.7 percent decline to 1.622 trillion yen in the previous month.

For the fourth quarter, sales from large retailers were down 7.0 percent to 5.252 trillion yen. For all of 2009, large retailer sales were down 7.0 percent to 19.778 trillion yen.

The data also showed that commercial sales were down 11.1 percent on year to 45.694 trillion yen in December. Commercial sales were down 15 percent in the fourth quarter and 20.5 percent for all of 2009.

Wholesale sales fell 14.7 percent in December to 32.699 trillion yen, also down 19.3 percent in Q4 and 25.6 percent for the year.

The Japanese currency edged slightly higher against its major opponents following the release of the data. The yen hit 85.7 against the Swiss franc, 145.58 versus the pound, 89.98 against the greenback and 126.2 against the euro.

(Market News Provided by RTTNews)