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(CEP News) - Economy watchers surveyed by the Japanese Economic and Social Research Institute reported stronger-than-expected optimism in the current conditions of the Japanese economy and look for the outlook to improve further.
According to the government's economy watchers survey, the current conditions index rose to 19.4 in February, up 2.3 points from January and outdoing expectations of more modest 0.2 point gain. February's increase marks the third consecutive month of improvement after the indicator dipped to 15.9 in December. Every component of the index showed further gains, including household current conditions, which rose to 21.5 from January's 19.0 level, business conditions, which improved to 16.7 in February from 14.6 and employment, which rose 1.8 points to 11.9. The outlook for the Japanese economy also improved, as reflected in an overall reading of 26.5 in February, up 4.4 points from January's figure. The most notable increase was in the business outlook, which jumped to 24.9 from January's 19.3 reading, and the household outlook, which jumped four points to 28.2. The survey asks workers in touch with the economy's ebb and flow in sales, service, and other industries to rate the state of the economy. An index above 50 indicates a positive view whereas a reading under 50 denotes a negative view. By Todd Wailoo,
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, edited by Stephen Huebl,
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