Japan March core machinery orders fall 3.9% month-on-month

[TOKYO] Japan's core machinery orders fell 3.9 per cent in March from the previous month, down for the first time in three months, Cabinet Office data showed on Thursday.

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 a 3.0 per cent decline expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

Compared with a year earlier, core orders, which exclude those for ships and from electric power utilities, declined 2.4 per cent in March.

Manufacturers surveyed by the Cabinet Office forecast core orders would rise 7.1 per cent in April-June, after climbing 3.3 per cent in the previous quarter.

REUTERS