Japan Retail Sales Growth Eases; Jobless Rate Stable At 2.5%

(RTTNews) - Japan's retail sales growth eased to a three-month low in May and the unemployment remained stable, official data revealed on Friday.

Retail sales grew 2.2 percent on a yearly basis, slower than the 3.5 percent increase seen in April, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. This was the slowest growth in three months. Sales were forecast to grow 2.4 percent in May.

Month-on-month, retail sales fell 0.2 percent in May, in contrast to the 0.7 percent increase seen a month ago.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent in May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported. The figure also matched expectations.

The number of unemployed increased 720,000 from a year ago to 68.38 million. This was the 34th consecutive month of increase.

Another report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed that inflation in Japan's capital softened to a three-month low of 3.1 percent in June from 3.4 percent in May. Tokyo core inflation that excludes fresh food and energy, eased to 3.1 percent from 3.3 percent in the previous month.