Japan Housing Starts Fall 9.8%

(RTTNews) - Japan's housing starts decreased for the fifth straight month in August, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism showed on Tuesday.

Housing starts dropped 9.8 percent yearly in August, following a 9.7 percent fall in July. Economists had expected a decrease of 5.2 percent.

The data indicated a decrease in new construction across all categories.The decline was more evident in the issued category, which tumbled by 67.5 percent.

There were also declines of 10.6 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively, in the owned and built-for-sale segments.

The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts declined to 711,000 in August from 712,000 in July.

Data also showed that construction orders received by the big 50 contractors surged 38.9 percent annually in August, reversing a 19.0 percent fall a month ago.