Japan’s housing starts decreased for the second straight month in December, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism showed on Friday.
Housing starts dropped 1.3 percent year-on-year in December, much slower than the 8.5 percent plunge in November. Economists had expected a decrease of 4.1 percent.
The data indicated a decrease in new construction across owned and rented categories, while increases were observed in built-for-sale and issued segments.
The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts rose to 771,000 in December from 718,000 in November.
Data also showed that construction orders received by the big 50 contractors grew 20.2 percent annually in December, after a 9.5 percent rebound a month ago.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
