Japan's core private-sector machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of capital spending, rebounded by a bigger-than-expected 3.4% in February, official figures showed April 10. Year-on-year, core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, were up 8.2%.
Rising spending by companies on plant and equipment is playing a key role in Japan's economic revival and investors, looking for evidence that this time the revival is for real, are closely watching the figures.
Machinery orders placed by the manufacturing sector in February rose 3% month-on-month, while orders from non-manufacturers gained 4.5%.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
