According to a household survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which shows trends in personal consumption, the amount spent by two or more households last December was 0.6% lower than in the same month of the previous year.
It was the first time in three months that it fell below the same month of the previous year, as the new coronavirus infection spread again and consumption of eating out and travel fell.
Meanwhile, the average consumer spending for households with two or more people over the last year was 5.3% lower than the previous year, the largest drop since 2001, when statistics are comparable.