Japan core machinery orders drop by 2.2%

Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders declined by 2.2 percent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis from a month earlier, marking the first drop in three months, the government said on Wednesday. According to the Cabinet Office, core private-sector machinery orders totaled 872.5 billion yen ($8.42 billion), in the period, with the drop coming on the heels of a 4.9 percent rise in July and an 8.3 percent increase in June. According to the office, orders from the manufacturing sector were down 4 percent to 353.1 billion yen and orders from the nonmanufacturing sector decreased 1.9 percent totaling 514.9 billion yen.