Core private-sector machinery orders fell a seasonally adjusted 3.0 percent in November from the previous month, greatly exceeding economists' predictions, and the government Thursday downgraded its key assessment for the first time in a year.
Core orders, a key indicator of future capital spending by companies that excludes volatile orders such as those placed by utilities, dropped for the third consecutive month to ¥723.0 billion. The rate of decline was sharply higher than an average 1.3 percent increase forecast by economists in a Kyodo News survey.
The trend for machinery orders in the country "has been picking up, but some weak development can be seen in nonmanufacturing industries," the Cabinet Office said in its assessment. For October, it only said orders were "picking up."