Japan Consumer Confidence up for eighth straight month in August

September 14, 2009
By Ken Worsley

According to data released Friday by the Cabinet Office, Japan’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 40.1 in August, up from 39.4 in July. August was the eighth consecutive month in which the consumer confidence index has shown a rise.

The consumer confidence index itself contains five scores, each of which is considered positive when above 50, and pessimistic when below the 50 mark. The overall score of 40.1 represents the first time since October 2007 that the index has come in above 40 points. Here’s a breakdown for August figures, with the change from the previous month:

Consumer Confidence Index: 40.1 (+0.7)
Overall Livelihood: 39.9 (+0.5)
Income Growth: 38.1 (+1.1)
Employment: 36.0 (+2.0)
Willingness to buy durable goods: 46.3 (-1.0)

Although all five scores had seen an increase in July, the “willingness to buy durable goods” category saw a fall in August. Over the past few months this score has been considerably higher than the others, and remains 6.2 points higher than the closest score, which is the overall index.

In a bit of good news for the electronics industry, the Nikkei recently reported that sales of flat screen televisions were up over 50% in July and August.

Still, despite the rise in consumer sentiment, household spending fell 2.0% in July, showing a decline for the first time in three months. August household spending data is due at the end of this month, and it will be interesting to see how it compares to the consumer confidence figures.

Filed Under Cabinet Office, Consumer Confidence Index, Economic Reports