Bank of Japan Downgrades Nationwide Economic Assessment for the First Time in 11 Years Due to "COVID-19 Impact"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has downgraded its economic assessments for all nine regions nationwide. Considering the economic impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), this is the first time in 11 years that economic assessments across the entire country have been downgraded.

According to NHK and other sources, the BOJ announced the April Regional Economic Report (Sakura Report) containing this information on the 9th. The Sakura Report is a regional economic report with a light pink cover published after the quarterly branch managers' meeting held by the Bank of Japan. It is prepared based on surveys of companies, capital investment, personal consumption, and other factors.

The BOJ had previously forecasted the economic conditions of the nine regions as "recovering" or "expanding moderately," but in this Sakura Report, it downgraded them to terms such as "weak movements" and "strong downward pressure." This is because it expects corporate production and personal consumption to rapidly decline nationwide due to the impact of COVID-19.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, "The spread of COVID-19 is having a broad negative impact on industries," adding, "Due to stay-at-home orders domestically, personal consumption assessments were lowered in all regions. Some companies are also complaining of deteriorating profitability due to a sharp decline in tourists visiting Japan." The difficult export environment was also mentioned as a reason for the downgrade in economic assessments.