Japan Feb core machinery orders +7.7% mth/mth

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s core machinery orders rose a much stronger-than-expected 7.7% in February from the previous month, handily beating a 0.8% increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll, government data showed on Monday.

Compared with a year earlier, core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, declined 1.8% in February, a much smaller drop than the 6.0% decline expected by economists.

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(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)