The December "Consumer Attitude Index," which shows consumers' willingness to shop, fell 0.1 points from the previous month due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection overseas, and deteriorated for the first time in four months. did.
The consumer attitude index is an index that shows consumer sentiment by asking 8400 households nationwide what their lifestyles will be for the next six months and whether it will be time to buy automobiles and home appliances.
In a December survey, the index for households with two or more people was 39.1, down 0.1 points from the previous month, the worst in four months.
During this survey period, the Cabinet Office tended to have a relatively small number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Japan, which led to an improvement in consumer sentiment. It is analyzed that it became a small minus as a whole.
On top of that, the keynote judgment of consumer sentiment that "the movement to pick up is continuing" has been left unchanged.
On the other hand, the percentage of households who answered that the outlook for prices in one year will "rise" was 88.5% due to the effects of the announcement of food price increases, an increase of 0.9 points from the previous month, 6 years and 8 months. It was the highest level for the first time.
The Cabinet Office says, "Consumer sentiment is greatly influenced by trends in the number of infected people in Japan, so we would like to carefully look at the impact of concerns about the spread of infection."