Japan: Consumer confidence stabilizes in January
Consumer sentiment was unchanged in January at December’s 44.7. The reading was below the 44.9 that market analysts had expected. The consumer confidence index measures consumers’ expectations for the next six months on a scale of 0–100, where 100 indicates that all respondents see their living standards improving.
January’s print reflected that a large increase in job prospects was offset by declines in the overall livelihood category, consumers’ willingness to buy durable goods and income growth. Moreover, consumers are increasingly confident that prices will increase in the year ahead. In particular, 82.4% of the respondents (up 2.4% from last month’s survey) expect that prices will trend higher.