Capital spending by Japanese firms rose for the second straight quarter in the July-September period, as the weaker yen helped bolster corporate profits, prodding companies to beef up investment, the government said Monday.
Business investment by all nonfinancial sectors for purposes such as building plants and introducing new equipment gained 1.5 percent from a year earlier to ¥8.94 trillion in the three months through September, following a 0.02 percent climb in the previous quarter, the Finance Ministry said.
"With corporate profits improving, capital spending has been moving upward," a ministry official said, expressing hope that an upturn in domestic demand would contribute to conquering nearly two decades of deflation.