Japan: Business confidence drops to lowest level since Q1 2021 in September
Business sentiment among large manufacturers—according to the Bank of Japans closely watched Tankan survey—came in at 8.0 in Q3, down slightly from 9.0 in Q2. Conversely, confidence among large non-manufacturing firms rose slightly to 14.0 in Q3 from 13.0 in Q2. As such, the sentiment values remained above the zero-threshold separating pessimism from optimism regarding current business conditions.
Analysts at Nomura commented on the print:
“The Tankan survey period was 29 August through 30 September, with a target response date (normally around 70% of responses are collected by this date) of 12 September. There were some changes in the environment during this period: (1) the number of new COVID-19 infections in Japan turned clearly downward; (2) yen depreciation picked up noticeably, with USD/JPY breaking above 140; and (3) share prices fell in Japan.”