Consumer Spending: Automobiles Motorcycles and Demand Exports

consumer spending: The latest assessment comes at a sensitive time, with the government planning to raise the consumption tax rate in October to 10 percent from 8 percent, a move that could dampen consumer spending, according to The Japan Times. The government has said it will go ahead with the tax increase unless the world's third-largest economy faces a shock on the scale of the financial crisis triggered by the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The office said its coincident index of business conditions for April climbed 0.8 point from the previous month to 101.9 against the 2015 base of 100, amid a recovery in domestic demand and exports of automobiles and motorcycles. ; The figures related to manufacturing components are rising but they were not enough for the government to upgrade the assessment, a Cabinet Office official told reporters. Last month, the Cabinet Office downgraded its economic assessment to worsening for the first time in over six years, signaling that the economy is heading into recession. The move raised doubts among economists about the government's assertion that the country's growth from December 2012 had likely surpassed the Izanami Boom, a 73-month streak from 2002 to 2008. In January, the office lowered its evaluation from weakening to signaling a possible turning point. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.