Raising concerns about prospects for economic growth, Japan's Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) declined to 37.2 in December from 37.5 in November, the Cabinet Office reported Thursday.
The CCI in December slipped after reaching a 19-month high in the previous month, with consumer moods ebbing on prospects for overall livelihood, the employment outlook, and willingness to buy durable goods.
In a bright spot, in December, consumers did have better expectations for income growth than in November, reported officials.
On the CCI, a rating under 50 points to negative consumer sentiments, and above 50 signals optimism and stronger confidence, according to the Cabinet Office.
However, Japan's CCI has not logged above 50 since April of 2006, seen by some as a commentary of Japan's "lost decades" of sluggish economic growth and near-deflation in the 2000s.
In other CCI survey results, 91.8% of Japan's consumers expect prices to go up in the next 12 months, reported the Cabinet Office.
To conduct the CCI survey, 8,400 households were polled on Dec. 15, and 76% responded to inquiries, reported the Cabinet Office.
The soft consumer sentiments in December, along with recent tepid real wage reports, will be mulled by the Bank of Japan.
The nation's central bank has reiterated it wants demand strong enough that real wages rise, resulting in higher consumer spending, and thus pulling the nation out of long-term, tepid-growth, low-inflation trends.
However, Japan's consumer price index-core (CPI-core) logged at 3% in November, which was above the Bank of Japan's 2% target.
The central bank next meets Jan. 23 -24 to set monetary policy, having also stated it wants to "normalize," or raise, its policy interest rate, now at 0.75%.
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