Taxi drivers, waiters and workers in other sectors considered close to the man on the street in January were more pessimistic about the economy than in any other month since the government began conducting its so-called Economy Watchers poll a year earlier, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.

The index of views on the economy's current status dropped to 41.5 in the reporting month, the lowest since January 2000 and down 2.9 points from December, it said.

The index stayed below the boom-or-bust line of 50 for the sixth consecutive month. Respondents are asked to rate on a five-point scale whether they think the economy is improving or worsening compared with three months earlier.

The office conducted the poll on 1,500 employees at businesses such as restaurants, hotels and retail shops. The January index was based on 1,394 respondents.

Indexes measuring their opinions on household spending, corporate activity and employment all stayed below 50 for the second straight month. In particular, the index for corporate activity was down 5.1 points to 39.5.

One department store worker from the Hokuriku region said heavy snow prevented consumers from shopping, while a publisher in the Kinki region cited continued below-cost price competition.

The index measuring opinions on the economy two to three months down the road rose for the first time in four months to 46.7, up 2.4 points. The improvement partly reflects expectations that price falls will stop now that fewer large retail stores are opening, an official with the office said.

More revenue from ads

Japan's advertising expenditures rose for the first time in three years in 2000 and hit a record high, mainly due to an economic recovery and improved corporate earnings, Dentsu Inc. said Thursday.

Advertising expenditures in 2000 totaled 6.11 trillion yen, up a strong 7.2 percent from a year before, eclipsing the previous high of 5.996 trillion yen in 1997.

The leading ad agency attributed the brisk expenditures in 2000 to an economic recovery on the strength of increased equipment investment in information technology industries and improved business results, which led many firms to increase their advertising budgets.

Industry reorganization and intensified competition in the information/communications and financial industries spurred companies to all-out advertising efforts, the agency also said.

The Sydney Olympics and campaigns for the Lower House election also contributed to the advertising upturn, it said.

Of the total expenditures in 2000, spending in the four conventional mass media as a whole rose 7.7 percent to 3.971 trillion yen after two consecutive years of decline.

Expenditures increased 8.1 percent to 1.247 trillion yen for newspapers, 4.4 percent to 436.9 billion yen for magazines, 1.4 percent to 207.1 billion yen for radio and 8.7 percent to 2.079 trillion yen for television.

Spending in the four media in 2001 is estimated to rise 4.3 percent to 4.14 trillion yen.

In 2000, spending on Internet advertising continued to surge, totaling 59 billion yen, up 144.8 percent.

By major industry, expenditures by the information/communications sector posted a sharp rise, supported by spending in advertising related to personal computers, cellular phones and the Internet.

Spending by this category soared 33.6 percent to 33.1 billion yen.

Among other sectors, the finance/insurance category also enjoyed strong growth, with expenditures rising 28.2 percent to 26.6 billion yen.