AFP, Tokyo :
Major Japanese manufacturers are feeling optimistic for the first time since the pandemic began, a key survey showed Thursday, marking a further improvement after business confidence plunged last year.
The Bank of Japan’s Tankan business survey, a quarterly poll of about 10,000 companies, showed a reading of 5 among big manufacturers.
A positive figure means more manufacturers see business conditions as favourable than those that consider them unfavourable.
The upbeat reading beat a market consensus estimate of minus 1 and is the first positive reading since September 2019, before the coronavirus began to wreak havoc on the world’s economy.
