Anchor: South Korea's consumer sentiment posted a record six-and-a-half-year high in June. The figure apparently demonstrates sustained expectations for economic recovery.
Our Bae Joo-yon has this report.
 
Report: The Bank of Korea announced on Tuesday that the nation’s composite consumer sentiment index(CCSI) stood at 111-point-one this month, up three-point-one points from May. The index rose for five consecutive months since February and marked the highest since January 2011.
 
By category, an index measuring people’s assessment of current economic conditions gained eleven points from the previous month and another index gauging people's sentiments over economic conditions in the six months ahead inched up one point.
 
An index measuring household income prospects rose one point, an index gauging expenditure prospects climbed three points and an index measuring current living conditions also jumped two points. An index gauging living condition prospects, meanwhile, remained the same as last month's.
 
The central bank attributed the growth in the figure to sustained expectations for economic recovery. It also said that favorable conditions in the stock market and exports appear to have buoyed overall consumer sentiment.
 
The nation’s CCSI plunged to its lowest level in seven years and ten months in January of this year before increasing from February.
 
The CCSI is produced by studying six key indices that gauge consumer confidence. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists on economic conditions.
 
The central bank came up with the latest figure after conducting a survey on 22-hundred households across the nation between June 13th and 20th. A total of two-thousand-29 households responded to the bank’s survey.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.