Big Japanese manufacturers turned pessimistic this quarter, the central bank's tankan survey showed, a sign the stubbornly strong yen, Europe's debt crisis and slowing global growth were taking their toll on the export-reliant economy.
The survey's headline index undershot expectations, keeping pressure on the Bank of Japan to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy, but the disappointment was not big enough to spur the central bank into offering additional monetary stimulus at its rate review next week, analysts said.
The sentiment index for big manufacturers worsened to minus 4 from plus 2 three months ago, indicating pessimists outnumber optimists. The reading, which reflects broad growth trends in the economy and serves as one of the BoJ's key policy gauges, was worse than a median estimate of minus 2. The outlook also worsened, with big manufacturers expecting business conditions to deteriorate three months ahead with the outlook index for March next year at minus 5, the closely watched survey showed on Thursday.
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