Supermarket sales in Japan fall by 1.4%

Japan's supermarket sales in November decreased 1.4 percent from a year earlier on a same-store basis, down for the second straight month, continuing to be affected by a consumption tax increase on Oct 1, the Japan Chain Stores Association said on Tuesday.

According to the association's figures, sales at 10,538 supermarkets operated by 55 companies totaled 996.8 billion yen ($9.1 billion).

The industry body's figures also showed that sales of food items, which were generally exempted from the 2-percentage-point tax hike from 8 percent, dipped 0.2 percent, with demand for alcohol subject to a 10-percent tax not recovering after being pushed up in September on last-minute demand.