Japan Housing Starts Surge 33.9%

(RTTNews) - Japan's housing starts increased at a faster than expected pace in May, data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism showed on Tuesday.

Housing starts grew 33.9 percent yearly in May, much faster than the 11.4 percent recovery in April. The expected growth rate was 31.8 percent.

Increases were seen across all segments, except issued ones, which fell by 21.2 percent. The built for sale category logged the biggest growth of 39.2 percent, and owned and rented categories rose by 31.8 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively.

The seasonally adjusted annualized housing starts climbed to 757,000 in May from 724,000 in April.