Due to COVID Resurgence... September Korean Consumer Sentiment Drop Ranks 2nd Among OECD

Since mid-August, the resurgence of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in South Korea has caused consumer sentiment to decline again. The drop between August and September was the second largest among the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to the OECD on the 18th, South Korea's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) last month was 97.03, down 0.33 points from 97.36 in August.

The OECD calculates and publishes the Consumer Confidence Index, which adjusts various national sentiment indices, including the Bank of Korea's Consumer Sentiment Index, to allow comparisons between countries. A value below 100 indicates that consumers are pessimistic about future economic and employment trends. A value above 100 means consumers tend to reduce savings and spend more on major purchases.

Last month, South Korea's CCI ranked 26th out of 28 comparable countries, dropping one place from the previous month. Only Latvia (96.43) and Spain (96.65) had lower CCI values than South Korea in September.

Notably, the decline from August to September (-0.33 points) was the second largest after Greece (99.49→99.13, a 0.36-point drop).

During the same period, only 8 out of the 28 countries experienced a decline in CCI. The rest all showed increases.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.