TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s core machinery orders fell 1.9% in August from the previous month, down for two straight months and the drop was bigger than expected, government data showed on Wednesday.
That compared with a 0.1% decline expected by economists in a Reuters poll.
On a year-on-year basis, core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as a leading indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, fell 3.4%, versus a forecast for 3.6% growth, the Cabinet Office data showed.
By sector, core orders from manufacturers declined 2.5% month-on-month in August, while those from non-manufacturers dropped 7.7% in the same period.
The Cabinet Office left its assessment of machinery orders unchanged, saying the recovery was pausing.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jacqueline Wong)
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