Japan February household spending seen up for second straight month

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese household spending likely rose for a second straight month in February but higher food costs and cold weather are expected to have slowed the pace of growth, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Household spending is seen likely up 0.3 percent in February from a year earlier after a 1.9 increase in January, the poll found.

"Price gains in daily necessities such as fresh vegetables and gasoline weighed on consumer spending. In addition to that, seasonal product sales didn't perform well due to cold weather," said Yosuke Yasui, senior economist at Japan Research Institute.

He also said the trend for household spending remained on a moderate recovery as wages grew on a tight labour market, albeit at a slow pace.

The internal affairs ministry releases household spending data at 8:30 a.m. on April 6 (2330 GMT on April 5).

A separate poll showed the Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan business sentiment survey, due out on April 2, is expected to show the headline index for big manufacturers' confidence declining by one point to plus 25 in March.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Sam Holmes)