Japan's housing starts fell by 1.7% in December for a 3rd straight month

Posted on February 3, 2023   |  

Japan's housing starts fell by 1.7% for a 3rd consecutive month in December, but the consumer confidence index was at a 5-month high at the end of the year.

In the same period, Seasonally adjusted annualized housing starts soared to 846,000 from 842,000 in the previous month.

During the year 2022, total housing starts grew by 0.4%, much slower than the 5.0% growth in 2021.

In December, construction orders of 50 big contractors grew annually by 8.5%, after a drop of 9.7% a month ago. The seasonally adjusted consumer confidence index improved to 31.0 from 30.3 in November, the overall livelihood rose to 27.8, and income growth also rose to 35.6.

The index for employment rose to 37.2, while households' willingness to buy durable consumer goods fell to 23.5.