March Machinery Orders Up 2.9%

The Cabinet office announced that private sector machinery orders, excluding volatile ones for ships and those from electric power companies, have increased a seasonally adjusted 2.9% in March. This is a rise of 3.5% in January-March period. The total value of the machinery orders received by the 280 manufacturers operating in Japan has decreased by 15.8% in March from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis. In the January-March period it rose by 11.5% compared with the previous quarter. In the April-June period the total amount of machinery orders was forecasted to decrease by 0.3% and private-sector orders, excluding volatile ones, were forecasted to increase by 10% from the previous quarter respectively. This forecast was basically made by summing up the figures from 280 machinery manufacturers.