Japanese core machinery orders, a leading indicator of corporate capital spending, jumped 20.1 per cent in December from the previous month to 751.2 billion yen (8.36 billion dollars), for the first increase in three months, government data showed Wednesday, dpa reported.
The core orders exclude volatile numbers such as those for ships and from electricity utilities.
Kyodo News had forecast an average 8.2-per-cent increase to follow November's 11.3-per-cent fall to a record low.
For the year 2009, however, core orders plunged a seasonally adjusted 26.9 per cent from the previous year, another sign of weakness in corporate capital spending amid the global economic crisis, the Cabinet Office report said.
Core orders in 2009 stood at 8.48 trillion yen, the lowest among comparable data available since 1988.
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