Japan’s core machinery orders slipped for the first time in five months in January, a worrying sign for an economy already facing heightened pressure from the Ukraine war and high energy and raw material prices. The decline in core orders hurts hopes that a pickup in business spending will support private demand in the world’s third-largest economy as firms struggle with surging input prices, a chip shortage and supply disruptions. Core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, contracted 2.0 percent in January from December, posting their first drop in five months, the Cabinet Office data showed. It was largely in line with economists’ median estimate of a 2.2 percent contraction and followed a 3.1 percent jump in the previous month. “The fall in machinery orders in January suggests that business investment may not recover much this …