Vaccine + Revenge Spending Effect... Consumer Sentiment Above 100 for Two Consecutive Months

Bank of Korea 'April 2021 Consumer Sentiment Survey'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eunbyeol] With the start of vaccination and the public growing tired of social distancing, face-to-face consumption has increased, pushing consumer sentiment above 100 for the second consecutive month in April.

According to the 'April 2021 Consumer Sentiment Survey' released by the Bank of Korea on the 28th, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCSI) rose 1.7 points from the previous month to 102.2. The index has shown an upward trend for four consecutive months since January this year, and last month it exceeded 100 for the first time since January last year (104.8), before the full-scale spread of COVID-19.

The CCSI is calculated using six of the 15 indices that make up the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI): current living conditions, outlook on living conditions, household income outlook, consumption expenditure outlook, current business conditions, and future business conditions. The long-term average from 2003 to 2020 is set as the baseline value of 100; values above this indicate relatively optimistic consumer sentiment, while values below indicate pessimism. Five out of the six CSI components that make up the CCSI continued to rise.

Among the indices not included in the CCSI, the Housing Price Outlook CSI (122) continued its decline for the fourth consecutive month, dropping 2 points compared to the previous month. The Bank of Korea explained that this was likely influenced by the government's announcement in February of plans to expand housing supply in metropolitan areas, the promotion of new public housing sites, and the selection of pilot project candidate sites announced last month.

With improvements in employment indicators and expectations that economic activities will resume due to vaccination, the employment opportunity outlook also rose 2 points to 86.

The inflation perception, which evaluates the consumer price inflation rate from one year ago, and the expected inflation rate looking one year ahead both remained at 2.1%, the same level as the previous month.

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