apan Business Confidence Steady; Slow Recovery Seen (Update6)
By Yoshiko Matsushita, with reporting by Ann Saphir
quote.bloomberg.com
Tokyo, April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese business confidence was unchanged in the first quarter, dashing expectations of an improvement and signaling the world's second-biggest economy may not emerge from 17 months of recession as soon as anticipated.
Pessimists outnumbered optimists 10 to 1, leaving the index of confidence among large manufacturers at minus 38 last quarter, the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey showed. Economists expected it to rise to minus 35. Confidence among retailers and other non- manufacturers, which do most of their business at home, held steady at minus 22.
While Fujitsu Ltd. and other large manufacturers expect business to improve this quarter as the U.S. recovery gathers pace, retailers such as Daiei Inc. expect little improvement as domestic demand sags. Their pessimism shows the limitations of Japan's reliance on exports to snap a recession, causing stocks and the yen to fall.
``If things don't go as expected with exports, then the whole scenario of a recovery collapses,'' said Shuji Shirota, an economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. ``Personal spending isn't going to a lead a recovery, and capital spending got worse.''
The yen had its biggest decline in a week, falling to 133.19 to the dollar from 132.73 in New York on Friday. |
