shoppers are reflected on a wall mirror at a supermarket in tokyo japan june 21 2022 reutersissei kato tokyo sept 6 reuters  japans household spending extended growth in july for a second straight month despite a resurgence in covid19 cases but inflationary pressures from the yens slump to a 24yearlow have cast doubt over the pace of consumption from falling real wages to shrinking service sector activity data this week has shown private consumption stalling undermining some of the gains made in apriljune read more household spending rose 34 in july from a year earlier government data showed on tuesday the reading was lower than economists median estimate of a 42 gain and followed 35 growth in june compared with a month earlier spending decreased 14 in july bigger than the forecast 06 fall japan saw a rapid increase in covid cases in the month and reported the worlds highest infections in the week of july 24 read more but the government has not reinstated curbs and instead hopes to reopen the fragile economy that in apriljune finally regained prepandemic levels lagging global peers read more the biggest risk japanese consumers face is rising prices analysts said as global commodity inflation and a weak yen jacked up the cost of imported goods the yen fell beyond 140 per dollar for the first time since 1998 last week read more if the yen remains at 140 per greenback for the next six months japanese households will be forced to spend 13 more than the previous year for food energy and other essential costs according to an estimate by saisuke sakai senior economist at mizuho research and technologies households are taking the hit of higher inflation with the yens further decline which inevitably drags down private consumption he said adding the chance of japans core inflation hitting 3 in the final three months of this year is heightening