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Results of the 72nd Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (December 2017 Survey)

January 18, 2018
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Full Text [PDF 614KB]

Survey Outline

Survey period : From November 10 to December 6, 2017.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
Sample size : 4,000 people (2,201 people [i.e., 55.0 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
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Have improved (A)	6.2	6.5	7.6	8.3
Have remained the same	68.9	70.3	71.0	70.9
Have worsened (B)	24.3	22.7	21.1	20.2
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-18.1	-16.2	-13.5	-11.9

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Will improve (A)	8.6	7.5	7.5	8.6
Will remain the same	64.3	67.2	66.4	67.0
Will worsen (B)	26.6	24.8	25.5	24.1
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-18.0	-17.3	-18.0	-15.5

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Have become better off (A)	6.1	5.9	7.3	6.5
Difficult to say	55.1	54.5	53.0	52.4
Have become worse off (B)	38.5	38.8	39.2	40.2
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-32.4	-32.9	-31.9	-33.7

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Have gone up significantly	10.5	9.8	7.8	7.6
Have gone up slightly	53.3	57.6	55.4	59.5
Have remained almost unchanged	32.8	29.6	33.1	30.0
Have gone down slightly	2.2	2.0	2.8	2.2
Have gone down significantly	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.1

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Will go up significantly	5.6	7.7	6.2	8.4
Will go up slightly	61.4	67.7	64.2	67.2
Will remain almost unchanged	29.7	21.6	26.7	21.6
Will go down slightly	2.5	2.3	1.7	1.8
Will go down significantly	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.1

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Know about it	-	32.4	-	30.5
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	-	45.0	-	46.0
Have never heard of it	-	22.3	-	23.3

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
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Know about it	29.6	27.7	26.7	27.3
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	37.8	31.8	35.7	33.0
Have never heard of it	32.2	40.2	36.7	39.4

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Know about it	33.8	40.1	28.1	41.0
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	39.6	40.0	38.4	36.6
Have never heard of it	26.0	19.6	32.1	22.1

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Know about it	20.6	23.3	16.5	22.3
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	35.1	38.7	33.1	36.3
Have never heard of it	43.2	37.7	49.1	40.8

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	69th survey (Mar 2017)	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)
Confident	-	14.0	-	13.0
Somewhat confident	-	30.3	-	29.7
Difficult to say	-	46.5	-	46.6
Not particularly confident	-	6.1	-	7.6
Not confident	-	2.6	-	2.6

Inquiries

Planning and Analysis Group, Public Relations Department

E-mail : prdmail@boj.or.jp