Japan Housing Starts Recover Unexpectedly In February

(RTTNews) - Japan's housing starts increased for the first time in ten months in February, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism showed on Monday.

Housing starts climbed 2.4 percent year-on-year in February, reversing a 4.6 percent fall in the previous month. Economists had expected a further decrease of 1.4 percent.

Data showed that new construction was increased notably by 5.1 percent in the built-for-sale segment, and a 3.2 percent growth was seen in the rented category. Meanwhile, declines were evident in issued and owned categories.

The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts climbed to 805,000 in February from 774,000 in January.

Data also showed that construction orders received by the big 50 contractors declined 3.3 percent annually in January, in contrast to a 12.2 percent surge a month ago.