JAKARTA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's consumer confidence index slumped to the lowest level in 12 years in April as the COVID-19 pandemic has been ravaging economic activities, a survey by the Indonesian central bank showed on Wednesday.
The Indonesian consumer confidence index tumbled to 84.8 in April from 113.8 in the previous month.
Reading above level 100 suggests that consumers are sanguine on the country's economy, while reading short of the figure indicates pessimism.
The consumer pessimism in April, the first since 2015, was caused by respondents' perception of falling income and poor job availability.
However, their perception on the economic condition in the next six months remained sanguine, albeit it was not as strong as that initially expected.
The optimism was due to the expectation of rising income and improved business activities.
The fall of the index in April was in line with the core inflation in the month which edged down 2.85 percent year-on-year from 2.87 percent in the previous month, according to data from the National Agency of Statistics.
The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted economic activities in Indonesia, cutting supply chains of goods, as the country has been applying partial lockdowns and restrictions on movements of people.
The virus outbreak has killed 895 people and infected 12,438 others across Indonesia, spokesman for the COVID-19 Related Matters Achmad Yurianto announced Wednesday. Enditem
