Japan's economy takes another hit as output, spending slump

TOKYO: Japan's factory output, consumer spending and real wages all fell in August, offering fresh signs of an economy reeling under the hammer-blow of a sales tax hike and keeping pressure on policymakers to deliver more stimulus to revive growth.

Although the Bank of Japan is in no mood to deploy additional easing anytime soon, a run of soft data is raising doubts about the central bank's conviction that inflation will reach its 2% goal by around mid-2015.