— See Separate Table For Details of Individual Forecasts
TOKYO (MNI) – Japanese housing starts are expected to have risen
3.6% in August, which would be a fifth straight year-on-year gain, but
the pace of increase is decelerating from +21.2% in July, according to
the median forecast of analysts surveyed by Market News International.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will
release the data at 1400 JST (0500 GMT) on Friday, Sept. 30.
In July housing starts posted the highest gain since +54.2% in
September 2008 as demand surged before the government ended its reward
program for building energy-saving homes in the month.
This caused a pullback in demand for new homes in August,
economists said.
On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, housing starts appeared
to have totaled 860,000 units in August, down from 955,000 in July.
Housing construction is expected to rise 3.4% on year to 847,000
units in fiscal 2011, the Research Institute of Construction and Economy
has said, revising down its previous quarterly forecast for +3.8% at
852,000 due to the negative impact of the March earthquake disaster.
skodama@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4838 **
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