In this situation, growth in private consumption until September turned out stronger than expected, reflecting the last-minute rise in demand ahead of the expiration of subsidies for purchasers of environmentally friendly cars and the increase in the tobacco tax, in addition to the boost from the extremely hot weather.
Since the beginning of October, however, private consumption has dropped following the earlier spike in demand. Meanwhile, housing investment has stopped declining, with the number of housing starts (a leading indicator of housing investment) – especially those for the sale of real estate lots – generally picking up and sales of apartments in the Tokyo metropolitan area increasing.