Japanese manufacturers’ confidence has suffered its sharpest decline in more than three decades, the Bank of Japan’s much-watched Tankan quarterly survey showed n Monday.

International financial turmoil, domestic recession and a drying up of corporate credit left the Tankan’s headline index for the mood of large manufacturers at minus 24, almost a seven-year low. The 21-point quarter-on-quarter fall in the index was surpassed only by a 26-point plunge during the 1973-1974 oil shock.