March 2023
Survey of Corporate Attitudes Toward Fiscal Outlooks for 2023
In FY2023, sales will continue to grow, but profits will become polarized
— In terms of diminishing factors, “Labor shortage” and “Progressing inflation” increased sharply, while “Infectious diseases” dropped sharply —
Introduction
Three years have passed since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic began having a significant impact on economic activities in Japan and the rest of the world. In FY2022, the domestic economy experienced a gentle upward trend as the priority measures implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were lifted nationwide at the end of the preceding year, and the economy gradually began to move toward normalization.
The transition toward a post-COVID society accelerated in March of 2023 as the number of people newly infected with COVID-19 began to decrease, mask-wearing rules became more relaxed, and optimistic trends such as increased numbers of people leaving their homes for events and recoveries in inbound demand became more common. Business confidence improved broadly, especially in individual consumption-related areas such as particularly strong travel demand and graduation and farewell parties. On the other hand, conditions continue to be tougher for companies due to soaring raw material and electricity prices, and insufficient price pass-throughs.
In light of these trends, Teikoku Databank embarked on a survey to assess corporate attitudes toward fiscal outlooks in FY2023. This survey was conducted along with TDB’s March 2023 survey on economic trends.
*The survey period was from March 17 to March 31, 2023. The number of companies surveyed was 27,628, and the number submitting valid responses was 11,428 (41.4%). Surveys on wages have been conducted once a year since March 2009, and this was the 15th such survey.
*Data on this survey are posted on the TDB Economic Online (https: www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 Outlooks for FY2023 indicate that, while sales will continue to grow, increased costs will put pressure on earnings
- 2 "Recovery of individual consumption" topped the list of factors boosting business performance for the first time in three years, while "Convergence of infectious diseases" declined significantly.
- 3 "Trends in crude oil and raw materials prices" topped the list of factors diminishing business performance for the second consecutive year