Japan’s retail sales tumbled 4.4 percent on year in April as a rise in the country’s consumption tax weighed on spending, data on Thursday showed.
The number compared with analyst expectations in a Reuters poll for a fall of 3.3 percent and marked the fastest annual decline since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan’s sales tax was raised to 8 percent from 5 percent at the start of April to help alleviate the country’s huge debt burden.
(Source: CNBC)