Major firms' capital spending plans for this business year posted a 9.2 percent plunge from 2008 to ¥18.221 trillion, the sharpest fall since such data were first kept in fiscal 1956, the Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
Their real capital spending in fiscal 2008 declined 7.1 percent as industrial production nose-dived along with the rapid economic deterioration since last fall, the government-affiliated bank said.
Some 2,400 surveyed companies capitalized at ¥1 billion or more plan to cut capital spending in fiscal 2010 by 3.7 percent for the third consecutive year of reduction, it said.
In particular, manufacturers are cautious about capital spending amid uncertainties over the future course of the economies at home and abroad.
Manufacturers plan to reduce their fiscal 2009 capital spending by a record 20.7 percent, compared with a 0.1 percent cut planned by nonmanufacturing firms.