2021.08.3108:08:00UTC+00Japan Housing Starts Increase; Consumer Confidence Weakens

Japan's housing starts increased in July and consumer confidence weakened in August, data showed on Tuesday.

Housing starts increased 9.9 percent year-on-year in July, following a 7.3 percent rise in June, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed.

Economists had forecast an annual 4.8 percent rise.

Annualized housing starts decreased to 926,000 in July from 866,000 in the previous month.

Data also showed that construction orders received by big 50 contractors grew 3.9 percent on year in July, after a 32.3 percent increase in June.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the consumer confidence index increased to 36.7 in August from 37.5 in July, the Cabinet Office revealed.

All the four sub-indexes of the consumer confidence index, the index reflecting overall livelihood fell to 38.1 in July and income growth decreased to 37.6.

Households' willingness to buy durable consumer goods declined 37.7 and the index for employment decreased to 33.2.

The latest survey was conducted on August 15 covering 8,400 households.