Japan: Consumer confidence declines marginally in June
Consumer sentiment inched down to 43.7 in June from 43.8 in May, coming in just below market expectations of a stable print. 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.
The slight deterioration in June came on the back of declines across all sub-indices, except employment. Consumers were more pessimistic about their overall livelihood, and their confidence in income growth fell to a ten-month low. Furthermore, consumers were less willing to buy durable goods. The lone bright spot in the report was households’ improved outlook on their employment prospects. Regarding prices, expectations of higher prices decreased slightly in June, with 81.7% of respondents expecting prices to trend higher (down 0.4 percentage points from last month’s survey).