Abenomics Hurting Japanese Consumers

Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe’s aggressive interventionist economic policies, popularly known “Abenomics”, or in reality “riches to rags” policies appear to be hurting domestic household consumers far more than the much touted "competitiveness" benefits it has been meant to provide.

From Nikkei.com 

Households are beginning to feel pinched by the weaker Japanese currency, which has resulted in higher costs for gasoline and some consumer goods.

The average price of regular gasoline rose to an eight-month high of 150 yen per liter on Tuesday, up 1.2 yen from a week earlier, according to data released on Thursday by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy. The price has climbed 4.5 yen, or 3%, since late November, when the yen's downswing started. The dollar-based price of crude oil has remained steady since November, but the yen's slide by about 10 yen to the dollar has resulted in higher import prices.

The price of kerosene rose to a nine-month peak. Growing demand due to a cold spell have pushed the price of the fuel up more sharply than other petroleum products.

Japanese have been traveling less too...

From Bloomberg,

Japanese visits to Korea have fallen five straight months to the lowest in two years in January, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. Korean Air Lines Co. passenger traffic between the two countries fell 9 percent last quarter from a year earlier, the biggest drop since the second quarter 2011, after Japan was struck by its most powerful recorded earthquake.

The 13 percent decline in the yen against the won since the start of December prompted Japanese tourists, who account for the biggest portion of foreigners traveling to Korea, to cut spending. To weather the downturn, Korean companies that relied on Japanese visitors are offering charter flights and prizes to lure Chinese who more than doubled their spending in January and February from a year earlier at Lotte Duty Free…

The number of Japanese tourists in Korea dropped 22 percent to 683,182 between November and January from the same period a year earlier, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. About 3.52 million Japanese visited Korea last year where the average visitor spent $1,273, generating approximately $4.5 billion in revenue, based on information from the Korea Tourism Organization and Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.

It won’t be long when Abenomics will be exposed for its quackery, and blow up into smithereens, perhaps via popular unrest and or a debt crisis.