MNI POLICY: BOJ Revisits Tankan; Add Overseas Capex, Euro-Yen

By Hiroshi Inoue

     TOKYO (MNI) - The Bank of Japan said Monday it would revise its quarterly

Tankan business sentiment survey from March to include new data points such as

euro-yen rates in addition to dollar-yen rates.

     For aggregation purposes, the BOJ will now compute the simple averages of

exchange rates provided by respondents instead of the current weighted averages

by total exports.

     The BOJ will also introduce new categories from June covering overseas

business activities, such as sales, overseas sales, current profits, fixed

investment and overseas fixed investment on a consolidated basis.

     Going forward, the Bank will limit the survey to group parent enterprises

with capital of Y1 billion.

     The BOJ will also look to publish the inflation expectations outlook on the

same day as the main Tankan survey instead of the day after as currently done.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

--MNI Tokyo Bureau; tel: +81 90-2175-0040; email: hiroshi.inoue@marketnews.com

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