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Results of the 85th Opinion Survey on the General Public's Views and Behavior (March 2021 Survey)

April 7, 2021
Public Relations Department
Bank of Japan

Full Text [PDF 1,070KB]

Survey Outline

Survey period : From February 5 to March 3, 2021.
Population of the Survey : Individuals living in Japan who are at least 20 years of age.
Sample size : 4,000 people (2,244 people [i.e., 56.1 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
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Have improved (A)	0.9	0.6	1.1	1.0
Have remained the same	26.0	22.4	27.2	27.6
Have worsened (B)	72.1	76.2	71.3	70.4
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-71.2	-75.6	-70.2	-69.4

Outlook for Economic Conditions One Year from Now Percent, percentage points
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Will improve (A)	19.3	14.3	14.4	23.1
Will remain the same	32.9	43.5	47.7	44.3
Will worsen (B)	47.0	40.9	37.5	31.6
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-27.7	-26.6	-23.1	-8.5

Impression of Present Household Circumstances Compared with One Year Ago Percent, percentage points
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Have become better off (A)	5.0	5.5	4.2	6.3
Difficult to say	51.3	54.9	56.7	55.0
Have become worse off (B)	42.6	38.8	38.1	38.0
D.I. (A) minus (B)	-37.6	-33.3	-33.9	-31.7

Perception of the Present Price Levels Compared with One Year Ago Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Have gone up significantly	10.8	10.1	9.2	5.2
Have gone up slightly	52.1	55.8	51.3	43.9
Have remained almost unchanged	32.4	29.2	34.6	44.3
Have gone down slightly	2.5	2.5	3.9	5.0
Have gone down significantly	0.3	0.4	0.2	0.6

Outlook for Price Levels One Year from Now Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Will go up significantly	9.7	8.5	6.3	5.8
Will go up slightly	57.0	54.8	53.7	56.6
Will remain almost unchanged	23.0	28.7	31.2	30.6
Will go down slightly	7.6	5.9	7.2	5.8
Will go down significantly	1.1	0.7	0.4	0.3

One of the Bank's Objectives Is to Achieve Price Stability Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Know about it	27.8	-	27.6	-
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	46.4	-	43.9	-
Have never heard of it	25.2	-	28.1	-

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
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Know about it	19.5	18.9	20.2	18.1
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	31.0	37.3	30.9	29.3
Have never heard of it	48.9	42.8	48.4	51.6

The Bank Has Been Implementing Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures to Achieve the Price Stability Target of 2 Percent Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Know about it	35.3	24.4	34.8	23.0
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	39.8	39.6	38.7	33.2
Have never heard of it	24.2	35.0	26.1	42.7

The Bank Has Been Conducting "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control" Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Know about it	19.1	14.3	17.6	13.8
Have read or heard of it, but do not know much about it	35.6	34.2	34.7	25.5
Have never heard of it	44.5	50.7	47.1	59.4

Confidence in the Bank Percent
	82nd survey (Jun 2020)	83rd survey (Sep 2020)	84th survey (Dec 2020)	85th survey (Mar 2021)
Confident	13.7	-	14.7	-
Somewhat confident	28.5	-	30.2	-
Difficult to say	47.3	-	46.9	-
Not particularly confident	6.9	-	5.3	-
Not confident	2.1	-	2.0	-

Inquiries

Planning and Analysis Group, Public Relations Department

E-mail : prdmail@boj.or.jp