Japan Housing Starts Drop 0.2% In July

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

Housing starts dropped 0.2 percent year-on-year in July, after a 6.7 percent sharp decline in the previous month. Economists had expected a decrease of 1.0 percent.

Data showed that new construction was contracted in owned and built for sale categories. Meanwhile, there was an increase in the issued and rented segments.

The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts rose to 773,000 in July from 765,000 in the previous month.

Data also showed that construction orders received by the big 50 contractors jumped 62.8 percent annually in July, in contrast to a 19.7 percent plunge a month ago.