FX.co ★ Japan Housing Starts Fall Sharply

The rate of housing starts in Japan witnessed a more significant decline in February, as revealed by data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism last Friday. The decrease is reported to be 8.2% on a yearly basis in February, a bigger drop than January's 7.5%. This exceeded economists' projections of a 5.5% contraction. The decrease in housing starts has been ongoing since the previous June.

Furthermore, the number of annualized housing starts slumped to 795,000 in February, down from 802,000 the previous month. In line with this, construction orders went through a double-digit yearly decrease of 11.0%, overturning January's increase of 9.1%.