MW: Japan consumer prices, jobless rate beat forecast
By Michael Kitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- A slate of Japanese economic data for December released Friday showed consumer prices and unemployment slightly better than expected, although household spending numbers surprised to the downside. Japan's benchmark core consumer price index, which strips out volatile food prices, was down 0.4% from a year earlier, the Internal Affairs Ministry said, with the fall less than the 0.5% deflation expected on average by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires and Nikkei. Compared to November, core CPI was unchanged. The unemployment rate eased to 4.9%, while the analyst survey had called for no change from November's 5.1% jobless rate. But spending for December by households of two or more -- Japan's main consumption measure -- was down 3.3% from a year earlier when adjusted for deflation, or 3.2% lower on a nominal basis. The Dow Jones survey had projected a drop of just 0.6%.
