The street economy decreased by 1.2 points in September, a response to the previous month’s growth;

In the September Economic Survey published by the Cabinet Office on the 8th, the DI for the current state of the economy was 47.8, down 1.2 points from the previous month. Photo taken in 2017 in Tokyo (2024 Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon)

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Economic Monitor Survey for September released by the Cabinet Office on the 8th had a current DI rating of 47.8, down 1.2 points from the previous month. It has been negative for the first time in four months. This was in response to the large increase last month due to specific factors such as an increase in demand related to disaster prevention. Looking ahead, there were concerns about the impact of rising prices of rice and other items on consumption.

The government maintained its assessment of the economy as “gradual progress continues”. Although the DI has decreased, we noticed that there was a rebound from the increase in the previous month and it is still at a higher level than July (47.5).

In the three sectors that make up the index, the DI related to business trends increased by 0.9 points and the DI related to employment increased by 0.1 points, while the DI related to financial trends increased house down 2.0 points.

In terms of responses related to domestic finances, some said that the demand for stockpiling for disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons has calmed down a bit, and that supermarkets and other stores are holding back on buy “Sales of fall items are slow due to the continued high temperature,” said a clothing specialty store in Tohoku.

The DI, which measures the outlook for the economy in the next two to three months, fell 0.6 points from last month to 49.7, the first decline in four months. Among the answers were, “The price of rice has gone up by about 30% to 40%, and when the price of a staple food increases so much, the purse strings become even tighter.” (Tokai = region shops) “Is the movement of goods slowing down.” Concerns were expressed, saying, “The continued price increases could be having an effect.”

Regarding the outlook, the Cabinet Office said, “Although we are concerned about the impact of price increases, we expect a gradual recovery to continue.”

Yutaro Suzuki, an economist at Daiwa Securities, said, “Although there is a deep propensity to save, sentiment is likely to recover gradually as real wages recover.

The study period is September 25th to 30th.

* Cabinet Office notification materials can be found at the URL below.

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