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TOKYO: Japan's unemployment rate ticked higher while production of automobiles and electronic gadgets slipped in June, data showed Friday, in a mixed picture for the world's second-largest economy.
Unemployment rose to 5.3 per cent in June, rising by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month and higher than market expectations of 5.1 per cent, in an indication of the headwinds that Japan's fragile economic recovery faces.
Industrial output fell 1.5 per cent in June from the previous month, missing market expectations of a 0.l per cent rise.
The fall, which surprised the market, clouds the prospects for a recovery that has been dependent on exports of automobiles and consumer electronics to offset a weaker domestic picture.
However, other data showed some encouraging signs for the economy which, despite remaining mired in deflation, saw the rate of consumer price decline ease for the second month in a row.
Japan's core consumer price index fell 1.0 per cent in June from a year earlier, marking the 16th straight month of decline as deflation continues to drag on recovery.
But the drop in core prices, which exclude volatile fresh food prices, was slightly smaller than market expectations of a 1.1 per cent decline.
The core CPI figure slid 1.2 per cent in May and 1.5 per cent in April.
There are worries that deflation may persist, as the safe-haven yen's current strength on an uncertain outlook for economies in Europe and the United States may drag on Japan's export-driven economy.
Core CPI in the Tokyo area in July -- considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide price trends -- fell 1.3 per cent on-year, suggesting that the rate of decline nationwide may pick up in the next few months.
But in a sign domestic demand may be picking up, average household spending in June was 0.5 per cent higher on-year and 2.9 per cent higher than in May.
- AFP/jm
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