JAPAN

Low Bank Earnings: Japanese banks’ earnings in the year ended March 31 were the “worst in several decades,” European rating agency IBCA Ltd. said in a report to investors. According to IBCA, the only thing that prevented the earnings from being worse was a “fortuitous” rise in the Tokyo stock market. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index rose 32.5% from mid-August, 1992, through the end of March. Nonetheless, write-downs by city and long-term credit banks for equity losses totaled $3.7 billion during the year. For city banks, the charge was not fully covered by profits, which meant selling other equity investments.