Japan Retail Sales Slump Flashes Warning Signal for Kuroda

Japan’s retail sales fell in March the most since 1998, cutting against central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda’s view that cheaper energy will give a boost to the world’s third-biggest economy.

Sales dropped 9.7 percent from a year earlier, when there was a run-up in purchases ahead of an April sales-tax increase, according to trade ministry data released Tuesday. Sales sank 1.9 percent from the previous month, compared with a gain of 0.6 percent forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey.