TOKYO, Nov 8: Japan’s core machinery orders, a key gauge of corporate capital spending, fell in September to come well below the market expectation, official data showed on Thursday.

The core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude particularly volatile demand from power companies and for ships, fell by 7.6 per cent in September from the previous month, the industry ministry said.

The fall, following a 7.7pc drop in August, was much worse than the market’s average forecast for a drop of 0.6 per cent.

For the three months to

September, core machinery orders rose 2.5 per cent from the previous quarter, but still came below an earlier government forecast of a rise of 3.7 per cent.—AFP