The central bank said survey respondents assume that the dollar will average 107.5 yen in the year to March 2001, compared with the forecast of 105.63 yen in the December survey.
For the year to March 2002, the surveyed firms assumed that the dollar will average 109.00 yen.
The fund-raising conditions index, which measures the number of companies that feel that it is easy to raise funds less those which feel it is difficult to do so, was at 11 among large firms in the March Tankan, compared with 13 in December.
The index is forecast to decline to 6 in the June Tankan. This index for mid- and small-sized firms stood at minus 5 in the March survey, after minus 4 in December, while the index for small-sized firms alone came in at minus 13 after minus 11 in the December report.
The index for mid-sized firms is forecast to worsen to minus 10 and that for small-sized firms is seen at minus 22 in the June report.
The survey also found that 183 financial institutions plan to boost combined capital spending for the year to March by 10.2 pct, compared with a 11.9 pct increase forecast in the December report.
They plan to raise such investment by 3.2 pct in the year to March 2002.
The ratio of parent pretax profit/revenue of large manufacturers is expected to reach 4.40 pct in the year to March, compared with the 4.52 pct rate seen in the December survey.
The same ratio for large non-manufacturers is expected to come to 2.57 pct, compared with the 2.64 pct in the December survey.