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S. Korea’s consumer sentiment sinks further in Jan.

January 26, 2016

SEOUL (Yonhap) — South Korean consumers’ sentiment continued to deteriorate from a month earlier in January with more people expecting their income and overall economic conditions to further decline down the road, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The composite consumer sentiment index (CSI) came to 100 for January, compared with a revised 102 for December, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists, while a reading below the benchmark means the opposite.

The January reading is the lowest since July 2015, when the index rose to 100 after dipping to a 33-month low of 98 in the previous month.

The on-month drop in January could be attributed to a growing number of people seeing their livelihoods deteriorating from six months earlier with more people also expecting their livelihoods to continue worsening.

An index measuring people’s sentiment toward their current livelihoods compared with that from six months earlier came to 90 in January, compared with 91 the previous month, while the CSI for future livelihoods also dropped to 96 from 98 over the cited period, according to the BOK.

A separate index gauging the people’s outlook on their future income also slipped to 100 from 101 in December and 102 the previous month.

The monthly index is based on a survey of 2,200 households throughout the country. The survey was conducted from Jan. 13-20, with 2,075 households responding.