Business sentiment among large Japanese companies in the January-March period turned negative for the first time in three quarters under the government's latest state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic, a government survey showed Friday.
The confidence index covering firms capitalized at ¥1 billion ($9.2 million) or more logged minus 4.5, down from plus 11.6 in the October-December period, according to the joint survey by the Finance Ministry and Cabinet Office.
The figures are calculated by subtracting the percentage of firms reporting worsening conditions from those observing improvements.