Japan Capital Spending Falls 11.5% In Q1

(RTTNews) - Capital spending in Japan plunged 11.5 percent on year in the first quarter of 2010, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday. That was below expectations for a 9.6 percent decline following the 17.3 percent fall in the previous three months.

Excluding software, capex shed 12.9 percent on year - far below forecasts for a 2.7 percent decline after the 18.5 percent fall in the previous quarter.

Sales were up 10.6 percent on year in the first quarter, the data showed, while ordinary profits surged an annual 163.8 percent.