Quarterly survey of Japanese CEOs predicts a small impact from the consumption tax increase going into effect April 1st - Nikkei
- Among the 148 respondents, 70.2%, said they expect a sales downturn of less than 5%, or none at all, in FY14, which runs through March 2015.
- A majority (55.4%) expects Japan's economy to improve or show signs of impending improvement by Sept, and that number grows to 74.3% by Dec. - 46.6% of CEOs said they are actively looking for M&A targets, up 4 percentage points from a year ago.
**NOTE: the last time the consumption tax was raised -- from 3% to 5% in 1997 -- sales rose sharply in the month ahead of the increase and then fell 8% the month after it went into effect and sales of big ticket items like autos and appliances were depressed for an extended period.