TOKYO -- Business investment of Japanese companies increased 0.02 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter of 2013, up for the first time in three quarters, according to official figures released on Monday.
The finance ministry said business investment by all non- financial sectors for purposes such as building plants and introducing new equipment expanded to 8.31 trillion yen (about 84. 29 billion U.S. dollars) in the three months through June, following a 3.9 percent fall in the previous quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, capital spending, excluding investment in software, climbed a seasonally adjusted 2.9 percent from the January-March period, up for the third straight quarter, the ministry said.
The data will affect revisions to Japan's economic growth figures, with the cabinet set to release revised gross domestic product data for the same period on Sept. 9.
