December 2014 was the fifth consecutive month that consumption had been increasing.
The increase was considerably higher than expected. Four economic analysts polled by Hina had expected consumption growth of 1.2% on average, their projections ranging from +0.5% to +1.7%.
The 2.6% rise in December was the highest in 2014. By comparison, in November retail sales rose by 2.2% year on year.