Japan's tertiary activity index increased for the second straight month in May, according to data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry on Tuesday.
The seasonally adjusted tertiary activity index climbed 1.7 percent month-on-month in May, following a 0.9 percent rise in April. Meanwhile, economists had expected a slower increase of 0.4 percent for the month.
Among the individual components, finance and insurance, electricity, gas, heat supply, and water, financial services, goods rental and leasing, business-related services, retail trade, medical, health care, and welfare, living and amusement-related services, and non-manufacturing-dependent business services increased in May.
Meanwhile,?information and communications, information services, transport and postal activities, wholesale trade, and manufacturing-dependent business services decreased.
On a yearly basis, the tertiary activity index rose at a faster pace of 2.4 percent in May after a 1.8 percent gain in the prior month.
