Telecommunications Equipment: Capacity Productivity and Capital Expenditure

telecommunications equipment: The first decline since the second quarter of 2016 indicated that growth in the world's third-largest economy may be gearing down. ; Oil refiners, automakers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment were among the poorest performers as exports to China slowed and labor and raw materials costs climbed, according to the Finance Ministry, according to The Japan Times. Still, companies continued to step up capital expenditure in order to boost capacity and productivity. Pretax profits fell 7.0 percent in the October-December period from a year earlier to total 19.48 trillion. Investment by all nonfinancial sectors for purposes such as building factories and adding equipment increased 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 12.05 trillion, up for the ninth straight quarter. Compared with the previous quarter, capital expenditure, seasonally adjusted and not including spending on software, rose 3.3 percent. Business investment has been a key driver of the economy, which is thought to be experiencing its longest expansionary phase since the end of World War II. It has been especially important as private consumption remains rather weak amid tepid wage gains. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.