The Tankan Report is due at 2350 GMT.
The term “Tankan” is short for “Tanshin Kansoku,” which roughly translates to “Short-term Economic Observation”.
- its published quarterly by the BOJ and is a closely watched economic indicator
- the BoJ surveys thousands of Japanese firms of all sizes, across a wide range of industries
- questions are focused on firms’ current business conditions and their expectations for the coming quarter and year
- covering aspects such as production, sales, profits, investment in plant and equipment, employment, prices, and more
The headline(s) to to the report are diffusion indexes, which reflects the difference between the percentage of firms that are optimistic about business conditions and those that are pessimistic.
- a positive reading suggests that more companies are optimistic, while a negative reading indicates more pessimism
The report is segmented into “large manufacturers,” “large non-manufacturers,” “small manufacturers,” and “small non-manufacturers” so as to help provide insight into different sectors of the economy.
Each month we get the Reuters survey of the same name that uses a similar methodology to the BoJ Tankan. The latest was encouraging:
While the Reuters Tankan is similar to the Tankan survey conducted by the Bank of Japan:
- its conducted monthly vs. the BoJ’s quarterly
- the Reuters Tankan has a wider coverage of industries and is not limited to large corporations
survey - is based on interviews with executives of about 500 Japanese companies, covering a range of industries and size
This snapshot from the ForexLive economic data calendar, access it here.
- The times in the left-most column are GMT.
- The numbers in the right-most column are the ‘prior’ (previous month/quarter as the case may be) result. The number in the column next to that, where there is a number, is the consensus median expected.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com. Source