The seasonally adjusted core machinery orders in March fell 9.4% from the previous month, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.
Private-sector orders excluding those for ships and power equipment, closely watched as a leading indicator of corporate capital spending, dropped to ?1.01?trillion ($6.4 billion) after the previous month¡¯s jump driven by large-scale orders.
The government kept unchanged its basic assessment that machinery orders are showing signs of picking up. ¡°There¡¯s not a movement from which we can clearly discern the influence of the Middle East situation,¡± a Cabinet Office official said.
Machinery orders from manufacturers declined 14.2% to ?488.4 billion, and core orders from nonmanufacturers slipped 6.0% to ?534.3 billion.
Orders from some manufacturing sectors, including the nonferrous metal industry, turned lower after soaring thanks to large-scale projects the previous month.
Total machinery orders, including those from the public sector and abroad, climbed 4.3% to ?3.9 trillion.
In the January-March period, core machinery orders increased 6.4% from the previous quarter to ?3.1 trillion, marking growth for the second consecutive quarter. For April-June, a smaller increase of 0.3% is expected.
In fiscal 2025, core orders rose 8.6% from the previous year to ?11.6 trillion, the highest level since the start of data comparable under the current format in fiscal 2006.
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