Consumers" Confidence is Weak

Consumers' confidence is weak because many consumers fear their incomes will continue to shrink in the future.
This phenomenon is spreading its influence more and more this year since Korea received the IMF bail-out late last year.
According to the results of a research survey the Bank of Korea (BOK) conducted on third quarter consumption of 2,509 households nationwide, released on October 15, 75% of the respondents replied that for the coming six months, they would not increase their consumption more than that of existing levels but more than likely decrease expenditures.
Respondents who expecially intend to buy real estate including houses, or cars within the coming six months were no more than 4%.
The Consumer Survey Index (CSI) as a result of this research, is 73. The CSI has rankings between zero and 200. Numbers above 100 mean that households with a better standard of living are more than those with a worse standard, in the case a number below 100 opposite conditions occur.
By income levels, the CSI for consumers with less than 1 million won incomes per month recorded 30, 1 million won to less than 2 million won per month 45, 2 million won to less than 3 million won per month 54, and 3 million won or more 57.
This means that the lower incomes are, the more pain there is.
The CSI for household incomes was 66, accordingly the prospect that incomes will decrease in the future was prevalent. The main reasons incomes will decrease were salary decreases (46%) and bad results for businesses (35%).