Core private-sector machinery orders posted the largest monthly decline on record in November, falling a seasonally adjusted 16.2 percent from October, as rapidly worsening global economic conditions dampened corporate appetite for investment, the government said Thursday.
The core orders, a key indicator of corporate capital spending about six months ahead, came to ¥754.2 billion. The 16.2 percent fall was the fastest pace of decline since comparable data became available in April 1987, the Cabinet Office said.
The amount of orders was also the lowest in about 21 years, since ¥734.4 billion in July 1987.
The figure represents a plunge of an unadjusted 27.7 percent from a year earlier, the office said, downgrading its basic assessment on machinery orders for the first time in three months.
The office said machinery orders have been "drastically decreasing," an expression not adopted since comparable data became available in May 1997, a Cabinet Office official said.
The results fell below the average market forecast of a 7.7 percent month-on-month drop and 20.9 percent slide on year in a Kyodo News survey.
The core orders exclude those for ships and by electric power companies as they tend to vary widely due to their large size.
The total value of machinery orders, including those placed by the public sector and from overseas to 280 makers in Japan in November, dropped a seasonally adjusted 13.8 percent to ¥1.746 trillion.
The total value of those orders declined for the sixth straight month and fell below the ¥2 trillion mark for the first time since April 2003, the official said.
Orders from manufacturers sank at the fastest pace on record, tumbling a seasonally adjusted 33.2 percent to ¥283.4 billion for the second straight monthly decline.
Those from nonmanufacturers edged up 0.5 percent.