Agence France-Presse . Tokyo

Nearly two-thirds of Japanese corporate executives are worried that the yen’s recent surge against the dollar will hurt earnings, a poll showed Friday.

Sixty-four per cent of company presidents surveyed in sectors ranging from finance to manufacturing to retail said the stronger yen along with financial market trouble would hit their exports, said the survey by the Nikkei business daily.

Japan’s long recovery from recession in the 1990s is fuelled largely by exports, with consumer spending still sluggish amid a declining population and slow growth in wages.

A stronger yen hurts exports as it makes products made in Japan more expensive and hence less competitive on overseas markets. A weak greenback also would decrease the value of repatriated dollar earnings.

The Japanese currency surged to a 12-year high against the dollar on Thursday as the greenback fell below 100 yen for the first time since 1995 over fears the US economy is slipping into a recession.

Ten per cent of respondents to the survey said their businesses in the world’s largest economy were already faltering while 61 per cent said their US operations were steady but that they worried for the future.

‘We’re pushing ahead with expanding our global businesses, but there is fear that earnings at overseas subsidiaries will deteriorate because of fluctuating exchange rates,’ Kazuyasu Kato, president of brewer Kirin Holdings Co. Inc., told the newspaper.

The survey also showed that corporate heads were increasingly worried that the US slowdown would spread to emerging markets.

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