Japan's manufacturing sector grew for the seventh consecutive month in December the country's PMI revealed on Monday, despite the economy falling into a surprise recession in the third quarter of 2014.
The expansion was bolstered by new orders both at home and abroad. New export orders rose for a sixth month in a row in December.
The final Markit/JMMA Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)recorded 52.0 in December, slightly less than a preliminary reading of 52.1 and unchanged from the last reading in November.
Manufacturing output was 52.5, falling short of a preliminary reading of 53.3 and slightly below 52.7 in November.
Regardless of the difficulties in the third quarter, the Japanese economy is expected to have resumed growth in the last part of 2014 as companies increased capital expenditure and consumer spending recovered.
