Dented by falling stock prices and fears that the war in Iraq will hurt any nascent economic recovery, business sentiment remained weak in March, according to a key Bank of Japan survey released Tuesday.
Sentiment among large manufacturers -- the only strong engine driving the economy -- slipped slightly from December, causing the diffusion index to slide 1 point to minus 10, the quarterly "tankan" survey shows.
Although better than expected, the fall ended three straight quarters of improvement and was the first decline in five quarters.