In the last three months, consumers have not given a positive assessment of the behavior of the national economy and there was a decline in their confidence.
While 15.7% of heads of household can be considered optimistic, 27.8% can be described as pessimistic, which is equivalent to almost two times more pessimistic consumers than optimists.
This was explained by the researcher Johnny Madrigal, from the School of Statistics of the University of Costa Rica, who supervises the creation of the Index of Consumer Confidence.
Negative economic policy ratings are currently stronger than three months ago.
We can assume these are less favorable expectations for the country’s economic future. People expect higher interest rates, more expensive fuels and a rise in the exchange rate. That makes the assessment of the country’s economic policy deteriorate,”
said Madrigal.
According to the researcher, the difficult fiscal situation is also related to the fall in consumer confidence. More people now believe that the Government is doing poor economic work.
In addition, employment expectations stagnated.
The survey of consumer confidence was conducted with 700 heads of household across the country during the first 15 days of August.