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Results of the 71st Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (September 2017 Survey)

October 13, 2017
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Full Text [PDF 414KB]

Survey Outline

Survey period : From August 10 to September 5, 2017.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
Sample size : 4,000 people (2,134 people [i.e., 53.4 percent of the overall sample size] provided valid responses to questions).
Sampling method : Stratified two-stage random sampling method.
Survey methodology : Questionnaire survey (mail survey method).

Impression of Present Economic Conditions Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Have improved (A)	4.4	6.2	6.5	7.6
Have remained the same	65.8	68.9	70.3	71.0
Have worsened (B)	29.2	24.3	22.7	21.1
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-24.8	-18.1	-16.2	-13.5

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Will improve (A)	6.3	8.6	7.5	7.5
Will remain the same	60.7	64.3	67.2	66.4
Will worsen (B)	32.7	26.6	24.8	25.5
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-26.4	-18.0	-17.3	-18.0

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Have become better off (A)	4.6	6.1	5.9	7.3
Difficult to say	52.3	55.1	54.5	53.0
Have become worse off (B)	42.9	38.5	38.8	39.2
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-38.3	-32.4	-32.9	-31.9

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Have gone up significantly	14.3	10.5	9.8	7.8
Have gone up slightly	55.8	53.3	57.6	55.4
Have remained almost unchanged	26.4	32.8	29.6	33.1
Have gone down slightly	2.7	2.2	2.0	2.8
Have gone down significantly	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.3

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Will go up significantly	6.9	5.6	7.7	6.2
Will go up slightly	57.8	61.4	67.7	64.2
Will remain almost unchanged	30.3	29.7	21.6	26.7
Will go down slightly	4.3	2.5	2.3	1.7
Will go down significantly	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.2

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Know about it	31.5	-	32.4	-
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	47.4	-	45.0	-
Have never heard of it	20.8	-	22.3	-

The Bank Has Set the Price Stability Target at 2 Percent in terms of the Year-on-Year Rate of Change in the CPI Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Know about it	28.6	29.6	27.7	26.7
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	33.2	37.8	31.8	35.7
Have never heard of it	37.9	32.2	40.2	36.7

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Know about it	43.2	33.8	40.1	28.1
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	37.7	39.6	40.0	38.4
Have never heard of it	18.8	26.0	19.6	32.1

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Know about it	24.4	20.6	23.3	16.5
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	37.7	35.1	38.7	33.1
Have never heard of it	37.4	43.2	37.7	49.1

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	68th survey (Dec 2016)	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)
Confident	12.5	-	14.0	-
Somewhat confident	27.2	-	30.3	-
Difficult to say	49.5	-	46.5	-
Not particularly confident	7.2	-	6.1	-
Not confident	3.1	-	2.6	-

Inquiries

Planning and Analysis Group, Public Relations Department

E-mail : prdmail@boj.or.jp