Japan's Machinery Orders Up 5.9% In May

Japanese private-sector machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, rose by 5.9% in May from the previous month, the government said July 9. The rise, which followed a 2.2% increase in April, beat the market's consensus forecast of 2.6% growth.

The core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from power companies and for ships, are regarded as a leading indicator of corporate capital spending.

Machinery orders placed by the manufacturing sector were 15.3% higher in May than in April, with orders by non-manufacturers down 1.8%.

Year-on-year, the core domestic orders were down 3.1% in May, after falling 9% in April, the Cabinet Office said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007