TOKYO : Business sentiment at big Japanese manufacturers worsened in the three months to March for a fifth straight quarter, the Bank of Japan's key quarterly tankan survey found, as Western banking woes added to uncertainty over already slowing global growth.
The headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment was plus 1 versus plus 7 in December, the survey showed on Monday. That compared with economists' median estimate of plus 3 in a Reuters poll of 14 economists.