The last six months have witnessed a deterioration in economic conditions, according to grumpy consumers in East Java.

The happily named Lucky Fatchul Azizi, head of the Surabaya branch of Bank Indonesia (BI), says that his institution’s Indeks Kondisi Ekonomi (IKE), Economic Conditions Index, a kind of consumer confidence measure, has declined from 82.1% percent at the start of the year to 78.7% as of July 2006.

Factors ranked by the survey, which was carried out among 500 middle to high income citizens of Surabaya, the East Java capital, during August, include perceptions of job availability, income level satisfaction, and time thought needed to save up to buy expensive items.

52% of respondents said that income levels were stable compared to the last six months while 28% thought their earnings had gone up and 19% were of the opposite view. Those who were of the latter opinion had consequently chosen to restrict their expenditure on recreational actitivies and on the use of telecommunications devices, in order to manage their decline in income.

Expectations about the future of economic conditions, as measured in the Indeks Ekspektasi Konsumen (IEK), were in positive territory of 106%, on a base of 100, although this represented a slight decline on the 109% figure for the preceding month. 21% believed that things were going to improve in the near future, 60% thought no change would occur, and 19% were glum.