TOKYO: Business sentiment among large manufacturers in Japan improved for the second straight quarter, the Bank of Japan’s “tankan” quarterly survey for December showed Monday. 

The headline diffusion index for large manufacturers’ current business conditions stood at minus 10, against minus 27 in the previous survey for September, the BOJ said.

The latest DI reading compared with the average forecast of minus 14 among 19 economic research institutes surveyed by Jiji Press.

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

The current business condition DI for large nonmanufacturers came to minus 5, up from minus 12, the BOJ said.

The business outlook DI toward March stood at minus 8 for large manufacturers and minus 6 for large nonmanufacturers.

Capital spending in fiscal 2020 is forecast to fall 1.2 percent from the previous year at large companies in the manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors.

JIJI Press