Confidence among large Japanese manufacturers rose in March for the first time in three quarters amid a global economic recovery and the yen’s fall, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey showed Monday.
The index for the quarterly survey climbed 4 points from December to minus 8, the survey showed.
Large manufacturers expected the index to rise to minus 1 in the next quarter, the survey found.
A negative number indicates pessimists outnumber optimists.
Improvement of sentiment among exporters such as carmakers contributed to the increase, the survey showed.
The yen has fallen about 14 per cent against the US dollar since December with the central bank’s monetary easing. A weaker yen makes Japanese goods more competitive overseas and improves repatriated earnings.
The survey also showed the index of large non-manufacturers’ sentiment climbed to plus 6 from plus 4.
Confidence among medium-sized manufacturers in the world’s third-largest economy fell to minus 14 from minus 12 while the index for small manufacturers slipped to minus 19 from minus 18.
Large companies in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors plan to lower capital investment by 2 per cent during the current financial year ending March 2014, the survey showed.
Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who took office in mid-March, vowed to engage in aggressive monetary easing to achieve a target of 2-per-cent inflation in an effort to overcome the deflation that has plagued Japan for more than a decade.
“It is necessary to continue bold monetary easing in terms of quality and quantity under a strong commitment” to achieve the goal, Kuroda said last week.
In January, the central bank adopted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s proposal to raise the inflation target from 1 to 2 per cent.
On Friday, the Government said consumer prices fell 0.3 per cent in February from a year earlier for the fourth straight month of year-on-year declines.
The bank surveyed 10,698 companies from February 25 to March 29 for the latest Tankan survey and 98.9 per cent responded.