The possibility to make significant purchases slightly picked up -24 (-23 in December) but reached a record low compared with -9 in January last year. Consumers pessimism as regards future price cuts improved -11 compared with December at -23 (-36 a year ago). As regards unemployment, households stayed prudent as in December and saw no real improvement as the indicator rose to 8 from 5 in December.
The Consumer Confidence indicator dipped further -35 compared with the previous month (-34) and plummeted compared with a year ago (-22). Households’ concerns over inflationary prices reached a new low -23 compared with -11 the previous month as prices were felt to have increased (41) compared with the previous month (37) Consumers also expressed the unlikely hood of future improvements as regards their financial situation compared with the previous month and in one year, the indicator nose dived to -14 compared with –4. Regarding unemployment, households remained pessimistic and foresaw no major improvement as the indicator gained two points to 11 compared with 9 the previous month. Consumers’ past standards of living was deemed to have deteriorated further -68 compared with the previous month -65 and even more so compared with -55 a year ago. The possibility to make significant purchases also dipped -26 compared with -24 in January and, similarly to all other indicators, reached a record low compared with a year ago (-11 in February last year).
Consumer confidence slid to –15, down one point as the financial situation of households over the last 12 months reached a record low at -18. Similarly, the general economic situation of households for the same period dipped to -51 only six points from the abysmal -57 of 1996. Major purchases over the next twelve months were seen unlikely with another record low at -28 as consumers gave price trends over the last twelve months a record high 79. As a direct consequence, the savings at present indicator fell one point to -19 but, unemployment over the next twelve months was seen to improve at 10 from 12.