Japan's machinery orders up for second month

Japan's core machinery orders rose 3.5 percent in July from the previous month, the government said Wednesday.
The orders grew for the second straight month to JPY 771.7 billion (USD 7.3 billion) following a 8.8 percent rise in June and a 19.5 percent drop in May, according to data released by the Cabinet Office.
Core private-sector orders, which exclude volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, are considered a leading indicator of corporate investment trends in the next three to six months. By industry, orders by manufacturers jumped 20.3 percent from the month before in July, and those from non-manufacturers shrank 4.3 percent. Overseas demand, an indicator of future Japanese exports, fell 42.6 percent.
The Cabinet Office maintained its basic assessment, saying, "the orders are moving in a seesaw manner." The slow recovery suggested that the sales tax hike in April, from five percent to eight percent, has caused negative impact to the world's third-biggest economy.
On Monday, the Cabinet Office said Japan's Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at an annualized 7.1 percent in the second quarter, the worst figure in five years, due to weak corporate capital spending.