Japan's machinery orders slide 10.4%

THE Japanese economy was dealt a further blow yesterday by news that core private-sector machinery orders fell 10.4 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months - the steepest plunge in five years since the global financial crisis.

It was also the first fall in five quarters.

News of the slump in this metric - regarded as a proxy for overall corporate capital investment - came a day after official data indicated that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by a dramatic 6.8 per cent at an annualised rate during the quarter.