Global| Sep 11 2008Japan Machinery Orders Go Sour
Summary
Japan’s machinery orders fell sharply in July while the so called core order series fell, but by less than had been expected. Domestic orders have been listless for a year while foreign orders have been getting quite weak since early [...]
Japan’s machinery orders fell sharply in July while the so called core order series fell, but by less than had been expected. Domestic orders have been listless for a year while foreign orders have been getting quite weak since early this year. Japan's two largest export markets are China and the US and both are slowing. The US slowdown has hit Japan especially hard. Still, orders is a volatile series. Even the so-called core is very volatile once the large projects are removed.
| Japan Machinery Orders | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m/m % | Saar % | ||||||
| SA | Jul-08 | Jun-08 | May-08 | 3-Mos | 6-Mos | 12-Mos | 12-Mo Ago |
| Total | -8.5% | -4.8% | 10.8% | -13.3% | -36.6% | -4.7% | 8.0% |
| Core Orders* | -3.9% | -2.6% | 10.4% | 13.9% | -23.1% | -4.8% | 7.8% |
| Total Orders | |||||||
| Foreign Demand | -14.4% | -12.1% | 21.1% | -30.8% | -51.8% | -7.4% | 13.3% |
| Domestic demand | -5.2% | 3.6% | 2.3% | 2.0% | -12.1% | -2.4% | 4.7% |
| *Excluding ships and electric power. | |||||||
Robert Brusca
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
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