JAPANESE retail sales fell in April for the second consecutive month, bolstering the argument that a nationwide sales tax increase scheduled for April next year should be delayed.

Japanese retail sales fell 0.8 percent in April from a year earlier, less than a median market forecast for a 1.2 percent annual decline, government data showed yesterday. That marked the fastest decline since March 2015.

Masahiko Komura, vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters yesterday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would delay the sales tax hike scheduled for next April by two and a half years.

Abe looks to avoid dealing a hammer blow to a fragile economic recovery, with the announcement on the tax decision expected ahead of an upper house election expected in July.

“Consumer spending is stagnating,” said Hidenobu Tokuda, an economist at Mizuho Research Institute. “Wages are rising and people are worried about high food prices. I can understand why the government would want to delay this tax hike.”

Compared with the previous month, retails sales were unchanged in April, a slowdown from March when they rose by 1.5 percent.

Abe, who has promised to announce steps today to spur economic growth and promote structural reform, is also expected to order an extra budget to fund stimulus measures, just two months into the fiscal year and on the heels of a supplementary budget to pay for recovery from recent earthquakes in southern Japan.

The plan to raise the sales tax to 10 percent from 8 percent has already been delayed once after an increase to 8 percent from 5 percent in April 2014 hit consumption and knocked the economy into recession.

Abe swept into office three years ago with bold plans to end decades of deflation and bring about sustainable growth. Unprecedented monetary policy in tandem with fiscal stimulus met with some initial success, but consumer spending has struggled due to weak gains in wages. (SD-Agencies)