The consumer confidence indicator increased in December and January, “interrupting the negative profile” of the three previous months, and the economic climate indicator also increased in the first month of the year, the INE announced on Monday.
According to the results of the Surveys of Companies and Consumers of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), “the consumer confidence indicator increased in December and January, interrupting the negative profile of the three previous months, which culminated, in November, in the lowest value since April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic”.
Regarding the economic climate indicator, “it increased in January, after having interrupted the downward movement that began in March in the last three months.”
According to the INE, the evolution of the consumer confidence indicator in January “resulted from the positive contribution of the prospects of future evolution of important purchases by families, the economic situation of the country and, to a lesser extent, the financial situation of homes”. .
On the contrary, opinions about the past evolution of the financial situation of households registered a negative contribution.
The balance of expectations regarding the future evolution of the country’s economic situation increased between November and January, “significantly in the last month of the year, after having decreased in the two previous months and having reached the lowest value since April 2020, when the pandemic began”.
Regarding the balance of perspectives on the future evolution of the financial situation of households, “it increased in the last three months, very slightly in January, after having decreased in September and October, having registered the lowest values in these two months since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020.”
For its part, the balance of opinions on the past evolution of prices “increased in January, after the decreases observed in the two previous months and after having reached the maximum value of the series in October”.
The balance of prospects for future price developments “decreased significantly between November and January, after having increased in the previous two months, reaching the lowest value since September 2021.”
Also in the manufacturing industry, confidence increased in November and January, “more intensely in the last month”, attributing this evolution to the “positive contribution of production prospects and the valuations related to the ‘stocks’ of finished products, with The opinions on the evolution of global demand contributed negatively”.
According to the INE, “the confidence indicator increased in the grouping of consumer goods and intermediate goods and decreased in the grouping of investment goods.”
The balance of opinions on global demand decreased in January, after having increased in December, resuming the downward trend observed in October and November, with opinions on domestic demand recovering between November and January and opinions on external demand also recovering in January .
For its part, the confidence indicator for construction and public works increased in January, after having decreased in December, in an evolution that “reflected the positive contribution of the two components, valuations of the order book and employment prospects, plus intense in the first case.”
In the commerce sector, the confidence indicator increased in November and January, reversing the downward movement observed between July and October, and, as a consequence of the positive contribution of the opinions on the volume of sales and the prospects of activity of the company, with valuations on the volume of ‘stocks’ contributed negatively.
In January, the confidence indicator increased in both retail and wholesale trade.
As for services, they saw the confidence indicator increase in January, after declining the previous month.
“The evolution of the indicator was due to the positive contribution of the perspectives on the evolution of the demand and the opinions on the evolution of the portfolio, more expressive in the first case, stabilizing the valuations on the company’s activity”, details the INE.
Source: Observadora
