Japan: Expect slight decline in economy watchers survey - Nomura

Masaki Kuwahara, Research Analyst at Nomura is forecasting a slight decline in both the current conditions DI and the future conditions DI for Japanese economy which is due to be released tomorrow.

Key Quotes

“Among economic indicators for January that have been released, the Japanese manufacturing PMI rose for a third straight month, but the sales DI in the monthly survey of SME trends fell sharply, down 6 points month-on-month. The survey of production forecasts call for a 4.3% m-o-m decline in January. The rise in share prices since the survey was conducted in December should give a boost to sentiment, while a higher crude oil price should have the opposite effect due to cost implications. Seeing that new job openings rose by 9.6% y-o-y in December, we believe it unlikely that the labor shortage has eased. Overall, we expect sentiment as measured by the Economy Watchers Survey in January to be weaker than in December.”