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Results of the 77th Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (March 2019 Survey)

April 5, 2019
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Full Text [PDF 964KB]

Survey Outline

Survey period : From February 7 to March 5, 2019.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
Sample size : 4,000 people (2,127 people [i.e., 53.2 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
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Have improved (A)	8.6	7.4	7.3	4.8
Have remained the same	72.6	71.3	70.7	70.9
Have worsened (B)	18.5	20.7	21.6	24.0
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-9.9	-13.3	-14.3	-19.2

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Will improve (A)	8.2	9.4	7.8	8.7
Will remain the same	66.7	63.3	51.9	51.3
Will worsen (B)	24.8	26.5	39.8	39.3
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-16.6	-17.1	-32.0	-30.6

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Have become better off (A)	7.1	7.2	6.4	6.5
Difficult to say	51.7	53.0	55.0	53.0
Have become worse off (B)	40.2	39.1	38.1	40.0
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-33.1	-31.9	-31.7	-33.5

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Have gone up significantly	10.9	11.1	10.4	8.4
Have gone up slightly	58.9	58.0	59.2	59.6
Have remained almost unchanged	26.9	28.8	28.4	29.9
Have gone down slightly	2.3	1.2	1.4	1.4
Have gone down significantly	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.3

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Will go up significantly	8.3	9.3	10.0	11.3
Will go up slightly	69.1	66.7	67.5	67.4
Will remain almost unchanged	20.3	20.9	19.6	18.1
Will go down slightly	1.5	1.9	1.9	2.2
Will go down significantly	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Know about it	31.4	-	33.6	-
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	43.9	-	42.5	-
Have never heard of it	24.4	-	23.8	-

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
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Know about it	27.1	30.6	28.5	26.0
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	32.0	37.5	29.9	35.2
Have never heard of it	40.8	31.4	41.2	38.2

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Know about it	39.1	30.9	39.5	26.0
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	37.7	41.0	38.2	38.1
Have never heard of it	23.0	27.7	22.0	35.1

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Know about it	21.0	20.1	21.8	16.5
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	35.2	34.7	37.1	31.8
Have never heard of it	43.5	44.4	40.7	50.4

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	74th survey (Jun 2018)	75th survey (Sep 2018)	76th survey (Dec 2018)	77th survey (Mar 2019)
Confident	13.4	-	13.0	-
Somewhat confident	29.5	-	28.9	-
Difficult to say	46.7	-	47.3	-
Not particularly confident	6.9	-	7.5	-
Not confident	2.7	-	2.6	-

Inquiries

Planning and Analysis Group, Public Relations Department

E-mail : prdmail@boj.or.jp