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Cabinet Office: Consumer Confidence Down to Lowest Level Since December 2004

July 12, 2007
By Ken Worsley


According to Wednesday’s report released by the Cabinet Office, consumer confidence in Japan fell to 45 in June , down from 47.3 in May. June’s score is the lowest since 44 was recorded in December 2004.

May’s score had been down 0.1 points from April, and June is thus the third consecutive month with a fall in the index. The last time Japan’s consumer confidence stood at 50 (where the optimists and pessimists are equally numbered) was in April 2006. The last time the score stood over 50 was for the second quarter of 1990, when it was at 50.3.

The report generates five total scores: The Consumer Confidence Index, Overall livelihood, Income Growth, Employment, and Willingness to buy durable goods. A score above 50 indicates positive public sentiment on that index. A number below 50 indicates negative sentiment.

June’s survey was carried out on June 15, 2007, and covered 6,720 households (4,974 households of two or more and 1,746 single-person households). Single-person households are excluded from the data covered in this post. The number of single-person households rose 3.83% from May to June.

Broken down by categories (change from previous month):

  • Consumer Confidence Index: 45.0 (-2.3)
  • Overall Livelihood: 42.4 (-2.6)
  • Income Growth: 42.2 (-1.7)
  • Employment: 49.0 (-2.2)
  • Willingness to buy durable goods: 46.4 (-2.6)

Not only did all five scores fall from last month, but all five are now below 50, which had not been the case since December of last year.

Consumers seem concerned that prices will rise in the coming months (and some concern over the possibility of rising sales taxes might have been in people’s minds, though that effect should be more strongly pronounced in the July survey results). At a press conference on Wednesday, a Cabinet Office spokesperson expressed the belief that consumers may be cowed by the recent rising prices of gas and mayonnaise.

Filed Under Cabinet Office, Consumer Confidence Index, Economic Reports 

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Comments

5 Responses to “Cabinet Office: Consumer Confidence Down to Lowest Level Since December 2004”

  1. WG on July 14th, 2007 2:50 am

    A rise in mayo prices? That’s rich.

  2. John S on July 16th, 2007 8:17 am

    Come to think of it, I haven’t bought mayonnaise for some time. This reminded me that I should put it on this list. Maybe they should just start listing random groceries so people remember to go get them.

  3. Increased tax burdens, consumer pessimism, excessively low interest rates, and the BOJ’s June Standard of Living Survey : Japan Economy News & Blog on December 2nd, 2007 10:52 pm

    […] a potential rise in the consumption tax, sluggish (if negative when normalized) gains in wages and decreased consumer confidence in June, economy watchers should now be worrying whether these two reports might prove to be a nail in the […]

  4. Japan’s Consumer Confidence Index Down for Third Consecutive Month in July : Japan Economy News & Blog on December 2nd, 2007 11:02 pm

    […] results were not pretty. The overall consumer confidence score was down 0.6 points, falling from 45 in June to 44.4 […]

  5. Ouch! Consumer Confidence at 32 Month Low : Japan Economy News & Blog on December 2nd, 2007 11:09 pm

    […] This one pretty much speaks for itself: Yesterday, the Cabinet Office announced that Japan’s consumer confidence level had dropped to its lowest level since December 2004. You might remember that two months ago, we published a piece with the headline Cabinet Office: Consumer Confidence Down to Lowest Level Since December 2004. […]

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