Japan's Sept core machinery orders fall 2.9% month-on-month: government

[TOKYO] Japan's core machinery orders fell 2.9 per cent in September from the previous month, down for a third straight month, Cabinet Office data showed on Monday.

The fall in core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, compared with economists' median estimate of a 0.9 per cent increase in a Reuters poll, the data showed.

Manufacturers surveyed by the Cabinet Office forecast that core orders will rise 3.5 per cent in October-December, after a 3.5 per cent decrease in the previous quarter.

Compared with a year earlier, core orders, which exclude those of ships and electricity, grew 5.1 per cent in September, versus a 7.9 per cent year-on-year gain seen by economists in a Reuters poll.

REUTERS