Global Slowdown Has Affected Japanese Manufacturers’ Moods, Reveals A Reuters Poll

According to a recent Reuters’ poll, the sentiment of big Japanese manufacturers had worsened in August for several reasons including the global slowdown, debt crisis and the strong yen that has continued to affect an export-driven economy.

A chemical company that participated in this survey, summarized the issue that Japan’s manufacturers are faced with, in saying, “Overseas demand is sluggish as Europe’s sovereign debt problems have been deadlocked, China’s economic growth is slowing down and the yen’s strength against the dollar and the euro has taken root.”

It’s not all bad news, though – this monthly poll which was answered by the top 278 firms in Japan during the August 6-21 survey period, and in the fields of retail, real estate and construction, expect business conditions to improve slightly over the next three months

Alternatively, non-manufacturers continued to remain steady considering the rebuilding efforts from last year’s tsunami and earthquake still in process. However, with the momentum in consumer spending slowing down, their outlook seems to be bleak.

This poll was conducted (and reaches similar conclusions) after a similar survey conducted by the Bank of Japan (known as the quarterly tankan corporate survey) that measures growth trends in the economy reported that Japan had registered its lowest drop in exports since January this year.

Keeping this mind, an air of pessimism dominated the responses received and dropped the overall score by another two points to minus 4 (from minus 2), primarily in the fields of cars, chemicals and steel, thanks to low-emission subsidies running out.