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Japan's Industrial Production Contracts 1.7% in May

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Japan's industrial production fell 1.7% year over year in May, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) released on Tuesday.

The reading missed market expectations of a 2.2% expansion, as tracked by Trading Economics. It follows a 2% growth in the previous month.

The annual drop was driven primarily by general-purpose and business-oriented machinery, electrical machinery, and information and communication electronics equipment.

On a month-over-month basis, factory output edged up 0.5% in May, unchanged from the pace of growth the previous month. It missed the market consensus forecast for a 0.6% increase, according to Investing.com.

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