MNI DATA SURVEY: BOJ March Tankan Sentiment, Capex Plans

     TOKYO (MNI) - The following are the forecasts by economists polled by MNI

for the quarterly Bank of Japan Tankan business survey for March due out at 0850

JST on Monday, April 2 (2350 GMT on April 1).

     On March 2, the BOJ said it had made slight revisions to previous Tankan

figures after conducting a routine shuffling of sample firms, which takes place

every few years, as well as introducing a new sampling method based on sales,

instead of the number of employees.

Data                           Median Forecast  Previous Survey  Previous Survey

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                    Old Formula      New Formula

Large Mfg DI                                26               25               26

Large Non-Mfg DI                            24               23               25

Small Mfg DI                                14               15               15

Small Non-Mfg DI                             8                9                9

FY18 Capex by Big Firms (%)                0.6              n/a              n/a

FY18 Capex by Small Firms (%)            -19.4              n/a              n/a

Sentiment Diffusion Index

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           Large-mfg  Large Non-mfg  Small mfg  Small Non-mfg

Median Forecast                   26             24         14              8

High Forecast                     27             26         15             10

Low Forecast                      24             23         11              4

Previous Survey                   26             25         15              9

No. of Responses                  10             10         10             10

Mitsubishi Research               27             25         14              8

Fujitsu Research                  26             24         15              9

Mizuho Research                   26             23         14              8

Mitsubishi UFJ Research           26             26         14              9

BNP Paribas                       26             25         13              8

Mitsubishi UFJ MS                 25             24         15              9

Daiwa Research                    25             25         13              8

SMBC Nikko                        24             23         15             10

Japan Research                    24             24         12              7

Sumitomo Mitsui AM                24             23         11              4

Fiscal 2018 Capex Plans (% y/y)

---------------------------------------------------------

                                 Large firms  Small firms

Median Forecast                          0.6        -19.4

High Forecast                            5.2        -15.5

Low Forecast                            -0.4        -22.0

Previous Survey                          n/a          n/a

FY17 Plans in Mar 17                     0.6        -22.6

No. of Responses                           9            9

Mitsubishi Research                      n/a          n/a

Fujitsu Research                        -0.1        -20.2

Mizuho Research                          5.2        -21.2

Mitsubishi UFJ Research                 -0.4        -17.0

BNP Paribas                              0.6        -18.6

Mitsubishi UFJ MS                        4.4        -20.5

Daiwa Research                          -0.3        -18.5

SMBC Nikko                               3.0        -15.5

Japan Research                           0.9        -22.0

Sumitomo Mitsui AM                       0.1        -19.4

--MNI Beijing Bureau; tel: +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: flora.guo@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MTABLE,MAJDA$,M$A$$$,M$J$$$]