Japan: Consumer confidence falls to nearly two-year low in October
Consumer sentiment decreased from 43.4 in September to 43.0 in October, marking the lowest print since January 2017. The print contrasted market expectations of a rise to 43.5. The consumer confidence index measures consumers’ expectations for the next six months on a scale of 0–100; a figure of 100 indicates that all respondents see their living standards improving.
Consumers were noticeably more pessimistic about their confidence in income growth as well as job prospects. The overall livelihood category also declined in October. Consumers’ willingness to buy durable goods, however, was unchanged compared to the previous month. Regarding prices, expectations of higher prices increased in October, with 82.9% of respondents expecting prices to trend higher (up 1.2 percentage points from last month’s survey).