ANZ-Roy Morgan South Korean Consumer Confidence Rises to One-Year High

• ANZ-Roy Morgan South Korea Consumer Confidence jumped by 6.3pts to 83.1 in September. South Korean Consumer Confidence is now at a one-year high, driven by increasing confidence about buying major household items.
  
  
• In terms of personal finances now 10.2% (up 0.2ppt) of respondents in September said their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, compared with 41.6% (down 3.4ppts) that said their families are ‘worse off’.
  
  
• Now just under a quarter of respondents, 24.2% (up 0.9ppt), expect their family will be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 35.2% (up 1.9ppts) expect their family to be ‘worse off’ financially.
  
  
• Thinking of economic conditions in South Korea going forward, just over a fifth, 23.4% (up 3ppts), of respondents expect South Korea will have ‘good times’ economically over the next 12 months (the highest level since October 2014), compared with 61.6% (down 1.9ppts) that expect ‘bad times’ economically.
  
  
• Over the longer-term, 38.3% (up 2.4ppts) of respondents expect South Korea will have ‘good times’ economically during the next five years and 41.2% (down 1.1ppts) expect ‘bad times’ for South Korea.
  
  
• 35.4% (up 10.6ppts) of respondents say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items (a record high), while 36.4% (down 9.9ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ major household items (a record low).
  
  
• Inflation expectation edged down 0.2ppts to 2.3% in September.

“The September ANZ-Roy Morgan South Korean Consumer Confidence figure likely reflected the recovery of the equity market following the sell-off on 24 August, and the stock market has rebounded from the low of 1,830 to 1,996 last Friday (18 September). Consumer confidence appears to have stabilised.

"However, the looming household debts will continue to weigh on households’ spending power. The consumption outlook of South Korea remains challenging. Given the sharp decline of exports, domestic demand is critical to support growth. President Park has called for an expansionary fiscal policy. To accommodate this move, the Bank of Korea should continue to ease monetary policy. We expect another interest rate cut of 25bps in Q4.”

Click to view the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan South Korean Consumer Confidence Release PDF - September 2015.