Japan Housing Starts Fall 7.3% In September

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

Housing starts declined 7.3 percent yearly in September, slower than the 9.8 percent fall in August. Economists had expected a decrease of 7.8 percent.

The data indicated a decrease in new construction across all categories, except issued ones. The decline was more evident in the built-for-sale category, which fell by 8.3 percent, and also rented ones, with a drop of 8.2 percent.

There was a 5.6 percent fall in the owned category, while the issued segment showed a sharp rebound of 53.7 percent.

The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts increased to 728,000 in September from 711,000 in August.

Data also showed that construction orders received by the big 50 contractors grew 34.9 percent annually in September, slower than the 38.9 percent surge a month ago.