December Tankan from Reuters improves

  • Non-manufacturers +14 vs +12 prior
  • March outlook -1 for manufacturing, +18 for non-manufacturing

Manufacturers are less pessimistic than they were last month, when the index hit the lowest since 2013.

Here's an interesting comment from the survey regarding the 10% hike in the sales tax in October:

"Our sales fell more than 10% in October from a year earlier because of the sales tax hike. There was not a lot of front-load demand, but the pull-back was larger than we expected," a manager said.

The official Tankan from the BOJ showed manufacturing sentiment at a six-year low.

We're expecting news of a 25 trillion yen stimulus package from Japan's government today, including 13 trillion yen of new spending.