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Japan’s consumer confidence inches up in September

According to data released by the Cabinet Office on Friday, Japan’s Consumer Confidence level has inched up a tad from the 32 month low we saw last month. The overall score for consumer confidence moved up by 0.1 points, to 44.1. A score above 50 indicates that optimists outnumber pessimists. The survey has not hit the 50 point level since April 2006, and has not been above the 50 point level since 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. The breakdown of those scores for September was as follows:

Consumer Confidence Index: 44.1 (+0.1)
Overall Livelihood: 42.2 (+0.3)
Income Growth: 42.4 (–)
Employment: 46.4 (-0.6)
Willingness to buy durable goods: 45.5 (+0.8)

Last month, we predicted that a further fall in the employment subindex would keep the overall score low again. The jump in Willingness to buy consumer goods helped nudge September’s numbers into positive territory, but that score tends to swing wildly.

The employment score, now at 46.4, is is considerably lower than it was a year ago, when it broke the 50 point level in 11 out of 12 months and stood at 50.9 in September 2006. The current figure is the lowest seen since the employment subindex hit 44 points in December 2004.

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