"Despite considerable differences in country-specific outlooks, the new forecasts mark down expected near-term growth rates marginally, but nearly across the board.
As a result, for the fiscal fourth-quarter, profits topped forecasts, marking the fifth consecutive quarter the company reported better-than-expected results.
The growth flew past analysts' forecasts and marked the fifth straight month of payroll gains in excess of 200,000 — a hiring spree not seen since the 1990s tech boom.
The forecast for this year marks a significant rebound from 2012 when the Britain eked out growth of just 0.1% but some economists have questioned whether the recovery is built on solid foundations given hard-pressed consumers are being expected to drive much of the growth.
As for the weather, the editors will let the criticism roll off if their forecast misses the mark.
The new forecast would also mark a drop of more than three-quarters from the industry's estimated 2010 profit, which was raised to $18 billion from $16 billion.
The quarterly tankan survey showed the sentiment index for large manufacturers at 19, down from 23 in the previous survey in September, and below the 21 mark forecast by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
In the "N-test" column, E[n] and N indicate the expected and actual numbers of target earthquakes in the forecast periods, respectively; entries marked with an "x" are rejected models with 95% significance level.
"The maximum wave heights recorded by one of the oil rigs in 1998 were greater than 11 meters and some of these waves were breaking!" Nothing of that magnitude is forecast for this year, which marks the Sydney Hobart debut of the British mariner emeritus Robin Knox-Johnston, 71, the first man to sail single-handed and nonstop around the world.
The reduction in next year's growth forecast has been especially marked for the Netherlands cut from 1.8% to 1.4%—and France down from 2.2% to 1.8%.
