Japan: Consumer confidence falls to one-year low in August
Consumer sentiment decreased from 43.5 in July to 43.3 in August. The print was in line with market expectations and represented the lowest reading in one year. 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 more pessimistic about their confidence in income growth and their employment prospects, suggesting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to boost wage growth are not yet translating into more money in household’s pockets. Moreover, consumers were less willing to buy durable goods. On the upside, consumers’ assessment about their overall livelihood improved marginally in the same month. Regarding prices, expectations of higher prices increased slightly in August, with 81.6% of respondents expecting prices to trend higher (up 0.1 percentage points from last month’s survey).