Japan March core machinery orders jump 19.1 %

May 19, 2014

Japan's core machinery orders jumped 19.1 percent in March from the previous month, government data showed on Monday, in a sign companies are more bullish about increasing business investment.

The increase compared with the median estimate for a 6.0 percent rise in a Thomson Reuters poll of economists.

Companies surveyed by the Cabinet Office forecast that core orders will rise 0.4 percent in April-June. In January-March, orders rose 4.2 percent, the data showed.

Compared with a year earlier, core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, increased 16.1 percent. That was much more than the median estimate for a 4.2 percent annual increase.

The full table-

1. The total value of machinery orders received by 280 manufacturers operating in Japan increased by 4.0% in March from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis. In January-March period it rose by 4.3% compared with the previous quarter.
   Private-sector machinery orders, excluding volatile ones for ships and those from electric power companies, increased a seasonally adjusted by 19.1% in March, and showed increase by 4.2% in January-March period.
    

2. In the April-June period the total amount of machinery orders was forecasted to increase by 21.3% and private-sector orders, excluding volatile ones, were forecasted to rise by 0.4% from the previous quarter respectively. This forecast was basically made by summing up the figures from 280 machinery manufacturers.
    

3. In 2013 Fiscal Year the total amount of machinery orders increased by 13.0%. Also private-sector orders, excluding volatile ones, rose by 11.5%.

Source: Thomson Reuters and Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan