The steep fuel price hike during the last quarter of 2005 severely dented consumer confidence, with 40 percent of Indonesians surveyed back then saying that they were worse off than a year ago.

The results of the survey, conducted by PT Roy Morgan Research, were released over the weekend.

The number of respondents saying they were worse off was 14 percentage points higher than the previous quarter, the Australian-based research firm said, with the number saying they were better off dropping by 6 percentage points to 20 percent.

During 2005's final quarter, 76 percent of Indonesians said that it was a bad time to buy major household items, with only 18 percent saying otherwise. The survey also found the 39 percent of respondents expected the poor economic conditions to continue this year. However, 40 percent said they expected to be better off financially this year, while 15 percent said they expected to be worse off.

Despite all the gloom, Indonesians were still relatively positive about the long term, with 79 percent expecting better economic conditions over the next five years.

Overall, the research firms's Indonesian Consumer Confidence rating fell 14 points to 105.2 from 119.2 in the third quarter.

"Any rating over 100 is still in positive territory. As such, the petrol price hike took a heavy toll but did not erase confidence altogether," said Debnath Guharoy in a press release announcing the results of the survey.

Roy Morgan interviews some 6,000 respondents aged 14 and upwards in 16 provinces for its quarterly surveys. The 2005 final quarter survey was based on interviews with a total of 6,244 respondents.