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Results of the 73rd Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (March 2018 Survey)

April 12, 2018
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Full Text [PDF 721KB]

Survey Outline

Survey period : From February 8 to March 6, 2018.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
Sample size : 4,000 people (2,092 people [i.e., 52.3 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
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Have improved (A)	6.5	7.6	8.3	9.6
Have remained the same	70.3	71.0	70.9	68.0
Have worsened (B)	22.7	21.1	20.2	22.0
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-16.2	-13.5	-11.9	-12.4

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Will improve (A)	7.5	7.5	8.6	9.3
Will remain the same	67.2	66.4	67.0	65.6
Will worsen (B)	24.8	25.5	24.1	24.5
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-17.3	-18.0	-15.5	-15.2

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Have become better off (A)	5.9	7.3	6.5	6.1
Difficult to say	54.5	53.0	52.4	51.8
Have become worse off (B)	38.8	39.2	40.2	41.4
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-32.9	-31.9	-33.7	-35.3

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Have gone up significantly	9.8	7.8	7.6	14.8
Have gone up slightly	57.6	55.4	59.5	58.7
Have remained almost unchanged	29.6	33.1	30.0	23.7
Have gone down slightly	2.0	2.8	2.2	1.8
Have gone down significantly	0.3	0.3	0.1	0.4

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Will go up significantly	7.7	6.2	8.4	6.9
Will go up slightly	67.7	64.2	67.2	67.0
Will remain almost unchanged	21.6	26.7	21.6	22.8
Will go down slightly	2.3	1.7	1.8	2.5
Will go down significantly	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.0

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
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
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Know about it	27.7	26.7	27.3	29.0
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	31.8	35.7	33.0	36.4
Have never heard of it	40.2	36.7	39.4	33.6

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Know about it	40.1	28.1	41.0	29.3
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	40.0	38.4	36.6	39.9
Have never heard of it	19.6	32.1	22.1	29.5

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
Know about it	23.3	16.5	22.3	16.3
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	38.7	33.1	36.3	34.7
Have never heard of it	37.7	49.1	40.8	47.8

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	70th survey (Jun 2017)	71st survey (Sep 2017)	72nd survey (Dec 2017)	73rd survey (Mar 2018)
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