A vendor serves customers shopping for staple foods on June 11 at Kahayan Market in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan. (Antara/Auliya Rahman)
Indonesian consumer confidence strengthened in August, buoyed by a more positive public assessment of the job market and household spending plans, though retail spending is recovering only slowly.Bank Indonesia’s (BI) Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) climbed to 118.5 points in August from a reading of 116.8 in July, according to survey data released by the central bank on Tuesday.
BI reported that the Current Economic Condition Index (CECI) increased to 109.4 from 107.9 in the previous month, while the Consumer Expectations Index (CEI) rose to 127.6 from 125.7.
The central bank attributed the more improvement largely to consumers’ more upbeat perceptions of employment opportunities and their plans for purchasing durable goods, which describes long-lasting products like cars or washing machines.
The Job Availability Index climbed to 104.1 from 101.1, while the Durable Goods Purchasing Index rose to 106.1 from 104.1. The Current Income Index remained in optimistic territory at 118.0.
