Japan manufacturing conditions improve in Q3 as companies revise up their capital expenditures

Manufacturing and business conditions improved in Japan during the third quarter, as companies revised up their capital expenditure plans, a sign that the economy may be gaining momentum at the start of this quarter, a government survey showed Tuesday.

The joint survey by the Ministry of Finance and the Economic and Social Research Institute, an arm of the Cabinet Office, recorded a business survey index (BSI) of sentiment among large manufacturers at plus 2.9 in July-September, compared with minus 11.1 in April-June.

Large manufacturers expect their sentiment index to improve to plus 8.6 in October-December, the survey released on Tuesday showed. Japanese companies plan to raise capital expenditure by 4.9 percent in the fiscal year that started in April, up from their previous projection of a 3.8 percent increase.

"We still need to be somewhat cautious about overseas economies, but the sentiment data is showing some encouraging moves," Reuters reported, citing Hidenobu Tokuda, Senior Economist, Mizuho Research Institute.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan is scheduled to hold its monetary policy meeting during Sep 20-21, where it will decide on its next policy move, while deeply studying ways to steepen the government bond yield curve to lessen pressure on bank profits, Reuters reported.