Japan’s corporate sales, recurring profits and capital spending all plunged at record rates in the first quarter due to the global downturn, a government survey said yesterday.
Japan Inc’s recurring profits fell 69 percent from a year earlier to ¥4.27 trillion (US$44.35 billion) in the three months to March, the finance ministry said in corporate data excluding the financial and insurance sectors.
It was the sharpest drop since comparable figures became available in 1955 and the seventh straight quarter of declines, the ministry’s quarterly survey of corporations’ financial statistics show.
Manufacturers between them posted their first ever recurring loss of ¥2.25 trillion as the worldwide downturn hit demand for the country’s cars and high-tech exports.
Combined sales reported by corporate Japan both at home and abroad caved by a record 20.4 percent, the ministry said.
As companies slashed new investments, their total capital spending plunged by 25.3 percent, the eighth straight quarter of decline and the fastest pace since comparable data became available in mid-2002.
However, the government said there were first signs that worst was over for the world’s second-largest economy.
To collate the survey, the finance ministry surveyed 28,827 firms capitalized at ¥10 million or more, of which about three quarters responded.
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