HomeIn January 2023, the overall consumer confidence index increased by 4% compared to October 2022, with the urban population increasing by nearly 5% and the rural population decreasing by nearly 2%. This was announced by the press center of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).
Consumers' opinions about the changes in the financial situation of households and the general economic situation in the country during the last twelve months remain unchanged compared to the previous observation.
In the forecasts for the next twelve months, however, among the rural population, the survey registered some pessimism regarding the financial situation and slightly worsened expectations for the economic situation, while among the urban population, expectations were more positive.
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With regard to unemployment in the country in the next twelve months, the forecasts shift towards preservation or a slight decrease, as a result of which the balance indicator decreases by 10.5%.
Consumers believe that the upward trend in consumer prices has been maintained over the past twelve months.
At the same time, their inflation expectations for the next twelve months are less pronounced.
In January, the majority of consumers continued to assess the economic situation in the country as unfavorable for saving.
However, the latest survey recorded a slightly more positive outlook in their intentions to spend on 'home improvements' in the next twelve months.
The survey is part of the European Union's harmonized program of business trend observations and consumer monitoring and is representative of the population aged 18 and over.
The object of the study is the persons aged 18 and over, the selection method - random, nested and proportional to the population by region, incl.
rural/urban population (154 nests with 8 individuals per nest).
The survey method is a face-to-face interview.
The survey contains standardized questions related to the financial situation of households, the general economic situation in the country, inflation, unemployment, savings, intentions to make basic expenditures on durable goods and purchase of a home or a car.
The proposed answer options make it possible to grade them from optimistic through neutral to pessimistic.
The balance of opinions is obtained as a difference between the relative shares of positive and the relative shares of negative opinions with the following feature: a coefficient of 1 is given to strongly positive and strongly negative opinions, and a coefficient of 0.5 to more moderately positive and more moderately negative opinions.
With the results of the observations, the aim is to capture the direction of change of the studied variables, including
in the "level of confidence" of consumers, which in turn makes it possible to examine trends in the development of public opinion on basic economic processes and phenomena.
The consumer confidence index is an arithmetic average of the balances of expectations for the development in the next twelve months of: the financial situation of households, the general economic situation in the country, household savings and unemployment, the last balance being taken with the opposite sign.
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