Japanese retail sales rise as industrial production declines

The Japanese economy released the seasonally adjusted preliminary retail sales reading, which showed a slowdown in growth to 0.2% from 1.4% in February, beating expectations for stability at zero levels, while the annual reading of the same index showed an accelerated growth to 1.0% versus 0.6% in February, also beating expectations that accelerated growth to 0.8%.

This came in conjunction with the release of the preliminary reading of the industrial production of the third largest industrial world, which showed a decline of 0.9% compared to a rise of 0.7% in February, worse than expectations, which indicated a slowdown of growth to 0.1%, while the annual reading of the same index showed a widened decline to 4.6 Versus 1.1% in February reading, also worse than the expectations of a 3.8% decline.