Via the Reuters Corporate Survey … Japan firms overwhelmingly want Abe to delay tax hike … (hardly surprising, but there you go …):

  • 72 pct say the economy cannot cope with planned sales tax hike ( 28 percent said it can)
  • One third of companies said they want the government to put off the tax hike by up to a year
  • A quarter called for a delay by a year-and-a-half or more
  • 10 percent want the idea scrapped

Scepticism about higher inflation and durable growth:

  • only 16 percent expect to raise prices of their goods and services next year, 28 percent plan not to raise prices and 57 percent remain undecided

On worker payments:

  • Only 2 percent said they can raise wages next year more than this year, 31 percent expect wage hikes in line with this year, 11 percent see smaller pay rises next year and 14 percent say they cannot raise wages at all.

The poll was of 486 large manufacturers and non-manufacturers, 250 answered. Conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov. 10 by Nikkei Research

Earlier poll results here: Reuters Tankan shows manufacturing sentiment improves, but to weaken again