Japan’s service demand surprised to the upside as the Tertiary Industry Index rose 1.2% in July versus expectations of 0.5% increase. The service sector makes up 60% of the economy, and a sustained rebound here would surely bode well for the ailing island nation that saw annualized growth shrink for two consecutive quarters this year. By definition, this puts Japan into recession. For the moment, the uptick looks to have been driven by hotter weather in July as higher temperatures increased sales of air conditioning and water. Indeed, rising demand for utilities (electricity, water) led contributions among other sub-sectors of the service metric.
For a complete listing of this week's data releases, please see the DailyFX Economic Calendar.