Japan's housing starts increased in April and consumer confidence weakened in May, data showed on Monday.
Housing starts increased 7.1 percent year-on-year in April, following a 1.5 percent rise in March, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed.
Economists had forecast an annual 3.5 percent rise.
Annualized housing starts decreased to 883,000 in April from 880,000 in the previous month.
Data also showed that construction orders received by big 50 contractors grew 3.3 percent on year in April, after a 12.5 percent increase in March.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the consumer confidence index decreased to 34.1 in May from 34.7 in April, the Cabinet Office revealed.
All the four sub-indexes of the consumer confidence index, the index reflecting overall livelihood rose to 36.5 in May and income growth increased to 36.0.
Households' willingness to buy durable consumer goods remained unchanged at 36.2 and the index for employment increased to 27.7.
The latest survey was conducted on May 15 covering 8,400 households.
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