Economy Watchers Index Drops Sharply in Japan 

December 11, 2007

By Robert Brusca

· Japan’s economy watchers index is very weak. The future index is in the bottom 10 percent of its five year range. The current index and the employment reading are in about the bottom 15th percentile of their respective ranges. The Teikoku weighted indexes are weak in their respective ranges for the entire spectrum of indexes but retailing and wholesaling are on new five-year lows. MFG is in the bottom 10% of its range. The Japanese readings are in accordance with the OECD LEI for Japan from last week that showed conditions worsening sharply. 

  

Key Japanese Surveys
 

Raw readings of each survey

Percent of 5Yr range*
 

Nov-07

Oct-07

Sep-07

Aug-07

Nov-07

Oct-07

Sep-07

Diffusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economy Watchers

38.8

41.5

42.9

44.1

15.1%

27.5%

33.9%

  Employment

41.9

43.8

48.8

48.3

14.7%

21.5%

39.4%

  Future

38.8

43.1

46.0

46.5

10.6%

32.2%

46.7%

NTC MFG

50.8

49.5

49.8

49.6

30.2%

15.5%

18.7%

Economy Trends (Teikoku'/50 neutral/weighted diffusion)

MFG

41.7

42.4

43.8

44.2

9.7%

18.9%

44.7%

Retail

34.4

37.2

37.7

38.3

0.0%

17.1%

22.5%
Wholesale

38.3

39.1

40.2

41.2

0.0%

6.3%

30.2%

Services

45.0

45.6

46.6

47.3

36.4%

42.7%

56.2%

Construction

32.6

34.7

36.8

36.3

22.8%

43.8%

68.9%

100 is high; Zero is low

Commentary Archive