BoJ Tankan - March large manufacturers index at plus 23, below forecast |
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Mon, 02 Apr 2007 01:22
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TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Business sentiment at Japan's large manufacturers dropped for the first time in four quarters, with the closely-watched diffusion index for the sector falling to plus 23 in March from 25 in December, according to the Bank of Japan's quarterly survey of business sentiment or Tankan.The headline number was lower than the consensus forecast, as economists had estimated that the headline sentiment index for large manufacturers would come in at an average of plus 24, withforecasts ranging from plus 20 to plus 25.In the December Tankan survey, large manufacturers had forecast the diffusion index would come in at plus 22 in March.The Bank of Japan recently implemented a review of the number of companies that it surveys to reflect more accurately developments in the corporate sector, adding 1,387 firms and deleting 150 companies.While the first revision in three years did not affect much of the results for December, minor changeswere seen in such areas as forecasts for capital investments.The firms surveyed assume the US dollar will average 115.01 yen in the year to March 2007, compared to the previous forecast of 114.06 in December, while they see the average hedging cost at114.32 yen for the year to March 2008.The BoJ issued the following results of its business confidence index in the March survey, compared with index levels in the December poll:Large manufacturers - plus 23 vs plus 25Large non-manufacturers - plus 22 vs plus 22Mid-sized manufacturers - plus 16 vs plus 21Mid-sized non-manufacturers - plus 5 vs plus 7Small-sized manufacturers - plus 8 vs plus 12Small-sized non-manufacturers - minus 6 vs minus 4The BoJ also issued the following forecasts for June:Large manufacturers - plus 20Large non-manufacturers - plus 23Mid-sized manufacturers - plus 12Mid-sized non-manufacturers - plus 4Small-sized manufacturers - plus 7Small-sized non-manufacturers - minus 10yasuhiko.seki@xfn.comys/mas
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Bank of Japan's Tankan to show minor decline in business sentiment - report 