Japan housing starts recovered unexpectedly in March, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed Thursday.

Housing starts grew 0.7 percent in March from last year, confounding expectations for a fall of 1.9 percent. In February, housing starts declined 3.1 percent, which was the twelfth consecutive drop.

The number of annualized housing starts increased to 920,000 in March from 905,000 in February. Economists had forecast it to fall to 892,000.

The number of construction orders received by big 50 contractors increased at a faster pace of 8.2 percent annually following February’s 1 percent growth.

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