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Japanese consumers became the most pessimistic they've been in at least 26 years, making it unlikely they will spend to aid an economy weakened by slower global demand.

The sentiment index dropped to 30.1 last month from 31.4 in July, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. It's the lowest since the government began compiling the figures in 1982.

The economy had its sharpest contraction in seven years last quarter, the government said last week. Households pared spending for a fifth month in July as consumer prices rose at the fastest pace since 1997 and wages grew the least this year.

“Consumers can't be optimistic with inflation and sluggish wage growth,'' said Yasuhide Yajima, a senior economist at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo. “Consumer spending will remain too weak to support the economy.''

Of the four components used by the government to gauge consumer sentiment, the willingness to purchase durable goods and the outlooks for livelihood and wages fell to the lowest level ever, today's report showed http://easy-quick-payday-loans.com.

Some 88.2 percent of households predict prices will rise a year from now, down from a record 89.3 in July, today's report said.

“Higher prices are the major drag for sentiment,'' said Akira Maekawa, an economist at UBS AG in Tokyo.

Some 57.2 percent of households said their livelihood is “tough,'' rising to a record for the sixth straight year in 2007, the Labor Ministry reported last week.

Wages grew 0.3 percent in July, when the cost of daily necessities rose 3.6 percent. Job prospects also worsened, with the ratio of positions available to each applicant fell for a sixth month to 0.89, the lowest since October 2004.

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