(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Japan upgraded its assessment of all but one of the country’s regional economies as activity picked up from the Covid-19 slump, the bank’s quarterly report showed Thursday.
Shikoku, an island in western Japan, was the only area that didn’t show improvement, according to the Sakura report, the BOJ’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book survey. Three months ago, the bank downgraded all nine of Japan’s regions due to the pandemic.
With it’s less pessimistic tone, the BOJ is hinting that the recovery is developing in line with its forecasts, and the upgrades are likely to be reflected in a quarterly outlook the bank will release later this month along with its policy statement. Still, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said earlier today he expects the pace of the recovery to be only moderate.
Most regions reported that activity had started to pick or were showing signs of it, with economic activity resuming gradually, even as conditions remained severe due to the virus, according to the survey.
The major industrial areas around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya all saw improvement. The bank hasn’t upgraded this many regions at one time, since October 2013.
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