Japan Housing Starts Fall 1.8%

(RTTNews) - Japan's housing starts decreased for the seventh straight month in November, and at a faster-than-expected pace, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism showed on Friday.

Housing starts dropped 1.8 percent year-on-year in November, slower than the 2.9 percent fall in the previous month. Economists had expected a slight decrease of 0.1 percent.

Data showed that new construction was contracted in rented, issued, and built-for-sale categories, while an increase was seen in the owned segment.

The seasonally adjusted annualized number of housing starts decreased to 775,000 in November from 779,000 in October.