Kantaro Komiya, Yoshifumi Tomoto

TOKYO (Reuters – Japan’s retail sales rose quicker than expected in November due to falling COVID-19 rates, which have encouraged customers to spend more on their goods and services.

The government approved Friday a record 940 billion dollar budget to support the economy. This comes a week following the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it would keep its ultra-loose policy.

According to government data, retail sales rose 1.9% from November last year, as compared with economists’ average forecast of a 1.7% increase.

The 0.9% rise in October was the catalyst for this increase, marking the third consecutive month of increases.

Comparatively to the month before, November retail sales rose 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis. This follows a 1.0% decline in October.

Through November, the number of COVID-19-related cases per capita in Japan fell to less than 1 million compared with earlier in this month.

Except for border control to prevent the spread of Omicron, the government removed curbs from September.

According to the latest Reuters survey of economists, China’s third-largest country is poised to bounce back by 6.1% per year in the current quarterly after a 3.6% slump between July and September.