Confidence among Japanese businesses improved in the April-June quarter, results of a survey conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office revealed Tuesday.
The index measuring sentiment among firms with a capital of JPY 1 billion or more increased to 5.9 in April-June from 1 in January-March.
Big companies expect business conditions to improve further in the September quarter, though their outlook for the December quarter was somewhat weaker than the prior three-month period.
Big manufacturers' sentiment index rose to 5 in June quarter from -4.6 in March quarter. Non-manufacturing firms' confidence index rose to 6.4 from 4 in the last quarter.
Both small and medium-sized companies were also upbeat about business conditions in the coming quarters.
For the June quarter, medium sized firms' sentiment index rose to 1 from -7.5 in the March quarter. Small firms' confidence index rose to -11.3 from -18, the survey showed. Companies revised up their capital spending plans for this fiscal year, according to the survey. Firms' expect their expenditure for software as well as plant and equipment to grow 7.2 in the financial year ending March 2014.
In the previous survey released in March, companies forecast a 6.5 percent decline in capex this fiscal.
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