Core private-sector machinery orders fell a seasonally adjusted 1.0 pct in April from the previous month, the Cabinet Office said. The market expected a 2.2 pct decline, according to the average of 22 forecasts in a Nihon Keizai Shimbun poll of brokerage houses and research institutes. The forecasts ranged from a decline of 4.4 pct to an increase of 0.7 pct. Year-on-year, core orders increased 2.5 pct. Core private-sector machinery orders, which exclude volatile orders from electric utilities and for ships, are viewed as a leading indicator of corporate capital spending. Strong corporate investment spending, along with an upturn in consumer spending, accounted for Japan's entire growth in the January-March quarter as exports fell. On Monday, the government reported the economy grew at a real, annualized rate of 4.9 pct, down from the initial estimate of 5.3 pct but still the fastest pace in a year. Machinery orders placed by the manufacturing sector in April rose 14.4 pct month-on-month and by 4.4 pct from a year earlier, the Cabinet Office data showed. Orders placed by non-manufacturers declined 6.9 pct month-on-month but increased 1.3 pct from a year earlier. Public-sector orders fell 0.4 pct month-on-month but jumped 2.0 pct from a year ago. Public-sector orders have been dropping due to a decline in government spending on public works, to prevent the national debt -- already the largest in the industrialized world in proportion to the size of the population and economy -- from worsening. Foreign orders surged 31.3 pct from the previous month and by 18.1 pct year-on-year. Total orders rose 14.8 month-on-month but by 8.3 pct from a year earlier. In March, total orders fell 2.7 pct month-on-month but increased 2.3 pct from a year ago.