Information Releases

Surveyon impact of BOJ’s negative-interest-rate policy on business

25% of businesses see the impact of the policy
— 10% of businesses indicated that the policy triggered new demand for funding, of which 64.2%for “capital investments” —

Introduction

On 29 January 2016, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to implement the “Quantitative/Qualitative Monetary Easing Policy with Negative Interest Rates.” The BOJ intends to maintain this policy as long as may be necessary to maintain the increase rate in consumer prices at 2% over the previous year to stabilize price increases. The BOJ began implementing this policy on February 16. However, the impact of Japan’s first negative-interest-rate policy is not yet clearly understood by either businesses or government authorities.

Accordingly, Teikoku Data Bank conducted a survey to measure the impact of the negative-interest-rate policy on businesses.

*Survey period: April 15-30, 2016; Companies researched: 23,432; Valid responses: 10,246 (response rate: 43.7%).

*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP. (http://www.tdb-di.com).

Primary points of survey results(summary)

  1. 1 As for the negative-interest-rate impact, 10.9% of respondents said it was “positive,” while 10.5% felt it was “negative.” Financial institutions primarily engaged in the loan business tended to express concerns about this policy, while real estate businesses especially welcomed this policy. However, only about 20% of the respondents had such definitive opinions. Approximately 80% answered either “no impact” or “not sure.” The negative-interest-rate policy has not yet fully penetrated into the business sector.
  2. 2 “The percentage of respondents with lowered borrowing rates was 23.3%. Many of them are major companies. Before lowering the borrowing rates, companies “received an offer from a financial institution” (57.4%) or “asked for it” (30.4%). Over 30% of the companies negotiated for a borrowing rate reduction.”
  3. 3 Implementation of the negative-interest-rate policy triggered new demand for funding (11.1%). The fund usage includes “capital investment” (64.2%), “operating fund” (39.2%) and “business expansion” (23.9%).
  4. 4 While 85.2% of respondents indicated “no change” in the relationship with their banks after implementation of the negative interest rate, some companies “had more business with other banks than their main banking institution” (5.0%) and “began business with new financial institutions” (2.9%).
  5. 5 Some companies took out loans after the negative-interest-rate policy became effective (37.9%). Many of them believe that their “financial soundness” or “overall trading conditions” were considered for the evaluation. Only 11.6% believed that their “business growth potential”
Economic and Industry Trends TOP