TOKYO: Japanese companies’ business investment in the first quarter of 2015 gained 7.3 percent on yearly basis, marking the eighth consecutive quarterly expansion, government data showed on Monday.
In the three month period towards March, capital spending by all nonfinancial sectors for purposes such as building plants and introducing new equipment totaled 13.13 trillion yen (about 105.6 billion U.S. dollars), the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
The data will affect revisions to Japan’s economic growth figures, with the Cabinet Office scheduled to release revised gross domestic product data for the same period on June 8.
On a quarterly basis, capital spending in the reporting period increased a seasonally adjusted 5.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014, up for the third consecutive quarter, the ministry said.
