Japan said yesterday that corporate investment had slowed from its recent breakneck pace in the three months to September, raising fears of a downgrade in economic growth for the quarter.
The data contributed to a mixed performance on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and led some analysts to believe that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) would become more hesitant on hiking interest rates in the near future.
The Ministry of Finance said combined corporate capital spending rose 12 percent year-on-year between July and September as big businesses continued to build and upgrade factories.
The index, determined by surveying close to 25,000 big companies, was up for the 14th straight quarter but it was down from a 16.6 percent year-on-year increase in the quarter to June which was the fastest rise on record.
The government uses the quarterly corporate survey to fine-tune its GDP data. Revised GDP figures for the September quarter are due out on Friday.
The preliminary estimate released last month beat expectations, showing the world's second largest economy growing by a resilient 0.5 percent from the previous quarter or an annualized 2 percent.
"The preliminary GDP data showed a surprisingly strong rise in capital investment but [yesterday's] survey implied that the overall capex and GDP readings would come in at levels that most economists had originally thought," said Junichi Makino, senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research.
Analysts had been expecting third quarter growth of 0.3 percent for an annualized 1.2 percent rate.
Economists last week said the figures still showed an underlying expansion.
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