Biz sentiment seen rising for 4th quarter in BOJ “Tankanˮ

September 23, 2017

TOKYO- The Bank of Japan's "tankan" quarterly survey for September is expected to show an improvement in business sentiment among large manufacturers for the fourth straight quarter, according to estimates by private think-tanks.

Sixteen think tanks on average expect the headline diffusion index for large manufactures' current business conditions will rise to plus 18 from plus 17 in the previous tankan survey in June.

The DI represents the percentage of companies seeing good business conditions minus that of firms feeling the opposite.

The fourth-straight rise in the most closely watched index would represent the longest uptrend since it went up for five successive quarters through March 2014. The central bank will release the results of the September tankan on Oct. 2

Ten of the 16 think tanks expect the DI to show an improvement in the September survey.

"Exports have been solid on the back of a recovery in overseas economies," an official of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. said.

The average forecast among the 16 institutes for the business outlook DI toward December stands at plus 16.

An official of the NLI Research Institute said that there are uncertainties over the administration of US President Donald Trump, adding that tensions related to the North Korean situation are highly likely to grow.

The think tanks on average expect that combined fiscal 2017 capital spending by large manufacturers and non-manufacturers will grow 8.3 percent year on year, stronger than the forecast of an 8 percent rise shown in the June tankan. Jiji Press