Japan Retail Sales July 2007

Well, the Japan retail sales numbers (preliminary data) for July are now out, and sales are actually up on June, but down significantly (2.2%) year on year. The Financial Times covers the story here, and Bloomberg here.As is becoming customary in the traditional media, bad weather is presented as the principal culprit:The value of retail sales was 2.2 per cent lower in July than a year before –