Information Releases

Survey of Corporate Attitudes towards Economic Outlook for 2023

Percentage expecting economic downturn has doubled to 25.3%
— Material cost measures and policy to revive personal consumption will hold key —

Introduction

The economic diffusion index (DI) in the TDB Business Trends Research (November 2022) has improved for the fourth straight month. In spite of the continued impact of COVID-19, various economic policies to support domestic travel, etc. have been successful, and a gradual improvement in the domestic economy has been observed. However, there are many causes for concern, including the jump in raw material prices, which has become protracted. The domestic corporate goods price index (from November 2022 bulletin) continues to increase at the high level of 9.3% year on year. With food and daily necessity prices rising one after another, household budgets are expected to be squeezed even further.

Teikoku Databank has therefore conducted a survey of corporate opinion on the economic outlook for 2023. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the November 2022 TDB Trends Research.

*Survey period: November 16, 2022 – November 30, 2022; Companies Surveyed: 26,953 nationwide; Valid Responses: 11,510 (Response Rate: 42.7%) Surveys on economic outlook have been conducted annually since November 2006. This is the 17th such survey.

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

Primary points of survey results(summary)

  1. 1 The percentage of corporations expecting an economic “recovery” in 2023 decreased by over 10 points from the outlook for 2022 in the previous survey (November 2021) to 11.5%. The economy was expected to “level off” by 39.1% of corporations. However, the percentage expecting an economic “downturn” increased by 12.7 points to 25.3%. One in four corporations now expect a downturn.
  2. 2 Far and away the most cited cause for concern (Up to 3 items could be selected) was the “(increase in) fuel and material prices”, selected by 72.7% (down 9.8 points year on year). This was followed by “exchange rates (depreciation of the yen)” (43.5%, up 24.6 points YOY) and “price increases (inflation)” (33.3%, up 15.9 points YOY), both of which increased sharply compared to the previous year.
  3. 3 Among economic policies expected to be necessary to bring about recovery, the top response, selected by 41.7%, was “Measures for coping with the raw material shortages and price rises” that were cited as causes for concern in 2023 by over 70 percent of corporations (Multiple responses possible). Other measures followed closely at thirty-odd percent: “Expansion of support (subsidies and other financial assistance) for small and medium-sized corporations (35.3%), “Resolution of infectious disease epidemics”, including COVID-19 (34.8%), and “Measures to expand personal consumption” (32.1%).
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