This month's "Consumer Confidence Index", which indicates the willingness of consumers to shop, improved for the second consecutive month due to the fact that there were no restrictions on behavior for the first time in three years during the year-end and New Year holidays.
The "Consumer Confidence Index" is a survey of 8,400 households across the country, asking them what their living conditions will be like in the next six months and whether it will be time to buy cars and home appliances, and shows the consumer sentiment as an index.
In a survey conducted this month, the index for households with two or more people was 31.0, up 0.7 points from last month and improving for two consecutive months.
For this reason, the Cabinet Office has revised upward its basic assessment of consumer sentiment to "weak movements can be seen."
This is the first upward revision in eight months since last May.
The Cabinet Office has analyzed that the lack of movement restrictions due to the new corona for the first time in three years during the year-end and New Year holidays had a positive impact on consumer psychology regarding living conditions and income.
In addition, when asked about the outlook for prices one year from now, 93.8% of the households answered that prices would rise.
The Cabinet Office said, ``The increase or decrease in the number of infected people is no longer directly linked to trends in consumer sentiment. .