• Japan’s consumer spending kept shrinking for a 13th straight month in March, government data showed on Friday, creating challenges for policymakers seeking to engineer self-sustaining economic growth and normalise monetary policy.
• Household spending fell 1.2% in March from a year earlier, the data showed, against economists’ median forecast for a 2.4% drop and following a 0.5% decline in February.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/japans-consumer-spending-fell-13th-straight-month-march-2024-05-09/