BOJ Tankan Likely to Show Slight Uptick in Biz Sentiment

Tokyo, March 31 (Jiji Press)--The Bank of Japan's "tankan" quarterly survey for March, due out Wednesday, is expected to show slightly stronger business sentiment among both major Japanese manufacturers and nonmanufacturers, according to estimates by eight private think tanks.

The think tanks forecast on average that the headline diffusion index for large manufacturers' current business conditions will stand at plus 17, up 1 point from the previous December survey.

While strong demand for semiconductors is expected to support the modest improvement, the business outlook is forecast to weaken due to concerns over rising tensions in the Middle East.

The DI is calculated by subtracting the percentage of companies reporting bad business conditions from those reporting good conditions. The forecasts were based on a new standard due to a review of the companies surveyed.

The average DI forecast for major nonmanufacturers is projected at plus 34, down 2 points.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]