Japan’s April Retail Sales Slumps On Tax Hike; Toyota And Tiffany Could Take A Hit

Discussion in 'Stock Market Forum' started by PaulSchinider, May 29, 2014.

  1. PaulSchinider

    PaulSchinider Well-Known Member

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    Retail sales for April registered the biggest one-month decline in 14 years as the Japanese government increased sales tax to reignite economic growth. Toyota and Tiffany & Co. could get negatively affected


    Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released sales data for April, which reflected the consequences of advanced consumption tax levied in the same month. Sales came in at 11.01 trillion yen, down 4.4% on an annual basis. The decline in sales was worse than economists’ estimates of a drop of 3.3%. On a monthly basis, retail sales slumped 13.7%, while estimates called for a drop of 11.7%. This marked the steepest decline since 2000.
    Shinzo Abe, who became Prime Minister of Japan in 2012, raised the consumption tax from 5% to 8%. This was done to help the world’s third-largest economy with its burdening debt that has grown to nearly 2.3 times the country’s GDP, and to collect funds to finance social welfare for the aging population. By increasing the value-added tax, Abe also hopes to achieve the goal of 2% inflation in an economy which has been in deflation for the past
     

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