Japan's machinery orders fall as trade war bites

Tokyo

JAPAN'S machinery orders fell in January at the fastest pace in four months as the US-China tariff war hit global trade, knocking demand from the country's auto and telecommunications equipment manufacturing sectors lower.

The 5.4 per cent decline month-on-month in core machinery orders, a leading indicator of capital expenditure, was more than the median estimate for a 1.7 per cent decrease and followed a revised 0.3 per cent decline in the previous month. It was also the fastest month-on-month decline since September last year.