Japan’s retail sales in December 2022 rose for the 10th straight month, the pace of increase accelerated and was better than analysts’ expectations.

Sales rose 3.8% from December 2021, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. They rose 2.5 percent in November. Experts surveyed by Trading Economics had on average forecast a 3% rise.

Sales of medical products rose 16% last month. At the same time, sales of equipment decreased by 3%, and fuel sales decreased by 0.5%.

Retail sales in December rose 1.1% from the previous month. In November, according to revised data, the indicator fell by 1.3% against the previously announced 1.1%.

Japan’s unemployment rate in December remained at its lowest since February 2020 at 2.5%, the same as a month earlier. This matched the average forecast of analysts.

The number of unemployed people decreased by 1.2% to 1.71 million in December, while the number of employed people increased by 0.1% to 67.19 million.

Another important labor market indicator showed that there were 135 open positions per 100 job seekers last month, the same as in November. That’s the lowest level since March 2020.

Japan’s industrial production fell 0.1% on a month-on-month basis in December after rising 0.2% a month earlier, preliminary data showed.

Analysts on average predicted a 1.2% drop in the index. In annual terms, it fell by 2.8% after a decline of 0.9% in November.