Nippon Electric Big-Stores Association (NEBA) announced a preliminary report on the sales results of June 2003 based on answers from 35 stores. The total sales amount all over Japan for May 2003 was 1,187.68 billion yen, falling below the same period last year by 3.55%. Since September 2002, this is the 10th month in a row in which the monthly result fell below the previous year's.

By product, sales of DVD devices (DVD players and DVD recorders) are increased by 37.6% from the same month in the previous year. Sales of PCs have slightly recovered due to the introduction of summer models, and its decrease rate stayed at a single figure. Air conditioners fell below the result of the previous year, mainly due to the weather factors such as continual rain in June. As the rainy season still continues, the imminent July result is expected to fall below the year-ago level.

Also, sales of video cassette recorders were ranked as the worst in May 2003 in comparison with the same month of the previous year. The same trend continues at 64.56% in June this year against the figure recorded in June last year. The VCRs fell below 1% (0.90%) of the total sales amount of consumer electronics bought in the surveyed stores.