Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported on Monday its
tertiary industry index, gauging the changes in the value of services purchased by
businesses, rose 0.4 percent m-o-m to 98.2 in November, after jumping 1.9
percent m-o-m in October. This marked the smallest increase in three months,
which, however, pushed the indicator to the highest level since March (98.7).
Economists had forecast tertiary industry index would increase 1.1
percent m-o-m in November.
Among the index components, finance and insurance (-2.0 percent m-o-m), goods
rental and leasing (-1.2 percent m-o-m), information and communications (-0.7
percent m-o-m), electricity, gas, heat supply and water (-0.6 percent m-o-m), business-related
services (-0.5 percent m-o-m), and wholesale trade (-0.2 percent m-o-m) recorded
declines in November.
Meanwhile, living and amusement-related services (+4.3 percent m-o-m), transport
and postal activities (+1.8 percent m-o-m), real estate (+1.6 percent m-o-m), retail
trade (+0.5 percent m-o-m), and medical, health care and welfare (+0.3 percent
m-o-m) rose.
In y-o-y terms, the tertiary activity index rose 0.6 percent in November.