Japan's
economy has shown signs of stagnation and some weakness as households spent
less and factory output stayed flat in July.
Official
data released on Friday also showed consumer inflation stayed unmoved at 3.3%
from the month before.
Japan
raised its sales tax from 5% to 8% in April so analysts said "real"
inflation for July was actually 1.3%.
Japan's
economy, which is the world's third-largest, suffered from deflation for almost
two decades.
The
central bank's current target for the inflation rate is 2%.
Sales tax
Since
coming to power in 2012, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has seen his various
reforms aimed at reviving the economy provide some relief to the country's
deflation concerns.
Mr
Abe's reforms, dubbed 'Abenomics', have been aimed at boosting inflation, among
other targets, in the hope that consumers would spend instead of save.
An
employee of Toyota Motor's subsidiary Toyota Motor Kyushu at the Kanda Plant in
