2018.08.3020:14:00UTC+00Japan Industrial Output Slides 0.1% In July

Industrial production in Japan dipped a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent on month in July, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in Friday's preliminary reading.

That missed forecast for a gain of 0.2 percent following the 1.8 percent drop in June.

On a yearly basis, industrial production advanced 2.3 percent - again shy of forecasts for 2.3 percent after sliding 0.9 percent in the previous month.

Upon the release of the data, the METI downgraded its assessment of industrial production, saying that is it picking up slowly but shows signs of decrease in part.

Industries that were down included transport equipment, business oriented machinery and iron and steel. Industries that were up included chemicals, electronic parts and communication electronics equipment.

Shipments were down 1.9 percent on month in July and up 1.3 percent on year.

Industries that were down included transport equipment, business oriented machinery and iron and steel. Industries that were up included chemicals, electronic parts and petroleum and coal products.

Inventories fell 0.2 percent on month and jumped 2.8 percent on year.

Industries that were down included electrical machinery, transport equipment and iron and steel. Industries that were up included chemicals, electronics parts and business oriented machinery.

According to the survey of production forecast, output is expected to gain 5.6 percent in August and 0.5 percent in September.

Industries expected to contribute to the gain in August include production machinery, transport equipment and business oriented machinery.

Industries expected to contribute to the gain in September include production machinery, chemicals and transport equipment.

Also on Friday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said:

. The unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent in July, beating expectations for 2.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from the June reading.

The job-to-applicant ratio was 1.63, in line with forecasts and up from 1.62 in the previous month.

The number of employed persons in July was 66.60 million, an increase of 970,000 or 1.5 percent on year. The number of unemployed persons in July was 1.72 million, a decrease of 190,000 or 9.9 percent on year.

The participation rate was 61.5 percent.

. Overall consumer prices in the Tokyo region climbed 1.2 percent on year in August, topping forecasts for 1.0 percent and was up from 0.9 percent in July.

Core CPI, which excludes food prices, gained 0.9 percent on year - topping forecasts for 0.8 percent, which would have been unchanged.

On a monthly basis, overall inflation was up 0.5 percent and core CPI gained 0.3 percent.