The confidence of Costa Rican consumers marked an increase of 4.1 points with the start of Carlos Alvarado’s government.
This increase is statistically significant and breaks the stagnation trend shown in the latest quarterly surveys. With the current measurement, the index was 45 points out of 100. This means that trust is still low, but better than before.
We are less pessimistic than three months ago,”
said Johnny Madrigal, a researcher at the School of Statistics at the University of Costa Rica.
According to the analyst, while three months ago the pessimists were twice as many as the optimists, now they form a quite homogeneous group.
The increase in confidence was widespread: men and women of all ages and levels of education showed a similar behavior.
The number of people who see a more promising economic future grew by 5.3 points,”
said Madrigal.
This behavior had already been observed in previous changes of government: Oscar Arias (+11.8 points), Laura Chinchilla (+6.5 points), and Luis Guillermo Solis (+11.9 points).
Despite this, expected increases in interest rates, exchange rates and inflation put a brake on optimism. In addition, the assessment of the economic course of the country in the previous government was negative.
The survey to determine the index was conducted between May 2nd and 25th to 700 heads of household.