Japan Machinery Orders

Japan's core machinery orders, excluding those for ships and electric power companies, increased by 3.4% month-on-month to 899.6 billion yen in November 2024, the strongest growth in nine months. The latest figure also accelerated from a 2.1% gain in October and defied market expectations for a 0.4% fall. Orders from the manufacturing sector surged 6% to 462.9 billion yen, while non-manufacturing orders rose by 1.1% to 453.7 billion yen. The largest gains were seen in industries such as chemicals & chemical products (71.4%), information & communication electronics (47.4%), mining, quarrying of stone & gravel (42.6%), information services (34.8%) and finance & insurance (21.7%). On an annual basis, private-sector machinery orders jumped 10.3% in November, accelerating from a 5.6% gain in October which was also the consensus forecast.