Japanese Machinery Orders Drops 5.4%

The Cabinet Office reported yesterday that core Japanese machinery orders fell by 5.4% in April. This is much weaker than the market consensus of a 0.4% rise.

The Bank of Japan reported that the country's wholesale price index, as measured by the corporate goods price index, slipped 5.4% in May from a drop of 4% in the same period a year earlier. This is due to cheaper commodities prices and a slump in corporate activity.

Those figures are not showing any turnaround of the economy yet, but economists maintain their view that the economy appears to be over the worst.