Japan Limps Into 2nd Quarter as Inflation Stops, Spending Falls
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The Japanese economy limped into the second quarter, as household spending fell, people left the job market and the central bank’s key inflation gauge slowed to zero.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food and effects of last year’s sales-tax increase were unchanged in April from a year earlier. Household spending unexpectedly fell 1.3 percent and industrial production was lower than a year earlier when the levy hike triggered a recession, according to the government data released Friday.