TOKYO: Spending among Japanese households tumbled last month and consumer prices fell again, data showed Friday, after the Bank of Japan announced it was overhauling a faltering bid to conquer deflation. The disappointing data marked the latest red flag for the world’s number three economy, and will put officials under ever-more pressure to find a way to kick-start growth. Government figures showed that household spending in August shrank 4.6 percent from a year ago, way below expectations for a drop of around two percent. Core consumer prices, excluding volatile fresh food prices, fell for the sixth straight month, dropping 0.5 percent on-year — way below the BoJ’s two-percent inflation target. However, the labour market remained tight with unemployment at a multi-decade low of 3.1 percent while factory output rose a stronger-than-expected 1.5 percent last month. “The continued decline in underlying inflation should ring the alarm bells at the Bank of Japan,” said Marcel Thieliant at research house Capital Economics. “Looking ahead, we expect underlying inflation to fall further to zero in coming months, which indicates that the Bank of Japan still has plenty of work to do to reach its two percent inflation target.” Japanese officials are under intense pressure to deliver, as many economists increasingly write off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s spend-for-growth policy to fire up the economy, dubbed Abenomics. Last week, the BoJ, which launched a massive bond-purchase programme to stimulate growth, revealed yet another exotic weapon in its monetary policy arsenal. After a hotly anticipated meeting, the bank said it would switch its emphasis from interest rates and concentrate its firepower on 10-year government bonds.