Economic Buzz: Japan Housing Starts Fall Further, Consumer Confidence Drops

29 Jul 2022 , 02:28 PM

Japans housing starts decreased for the second straight month in June, while consumer confidence weakened to the lowest level in one-and-a-half years in July, official data showed on Friday. Housing starts dropped 2.2 percent year-over-year in June, slower than the 4.3 percent fall in May, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed. However, seasonally adjusted annualized housing starts rose to 845,000 in June from 828,000 in the previous month. Data also showed that construction orders received by big 50 contractors grew 15.5 percent year-on-year in June, following a 19.5 percent rise in May. The seasonally adjusted consumer confidence index fell to 30.2 in July from 32.1 in June, data from the Cabinet Office revealed. Powered by Commodity Insights