MACROECONOMICS - JAKARTA. A recent Bank Indonesia survey shows that consumer trust has weakened in October due to a perceived decrease in jobs, declining incomes and continuing poor economic condition in the coming six months, Antara reported on Monday.
Monday's announcement of the survey results shows that the consumer trust index in October fell by 3.1 points month on month to 120.7 points. The survey involved 4,600 households in 18 cities.
“Eleven cities saw weaker consumer trust. The worst were Ambon and Mataram,” the central bank said in a statement, reported Antara. The statement also noted that although consumer trust had weakened, it remained within optimistic levels.
As for the economy, BI found that consumer perception had weakened across nearly all indexes: the employment index fell by 5.8 points and the income index declined by 0.1 point, particularly among respondents with monthly incomes between Rp 1 million (US$74) and Rp 3 million.
The central bank also found that consumers also tended to avoid spending on secondary goods like electronics, furniture and other household items.
Meanwhile, consumer expectation in the next six months to April 2018 also fell by 3.4 points, as reflected in weakened expectation across all indexes: employment, business and income.
