Nielsen: Consumer confidence in Q4 2016 at record high

The Portuguese Consumer Confidence Index in the final quarter of 2016 rose by eight points to an “all time high” of 74 points, the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence report said.

Nielsen said “the level of national consumer confidence exceeded that recorded in countries such as Finland (68), France (66), Russia (63), Italy (58) and Greece (53),” and the European Union average was 81 points and the global average was 101 points.

“The perceptions of Portuguese consumers have improved significantly: 36% (10 more percentage points year on year) they don’t consider their country to be in economic recession and 17% (an additional six points year on year) believe in an economic recovery over the next 12 months,” Nielsen said.

As well as this, according to Nielsen, “23% of Portuguese have a good outlook when it comes to their professional situation over the next 12 months (with an improvement of eight percentage points year on year) and 36% are confident about their financial situation (seven more percentage points compared to 2015).”

The percentage of people surveyed who said they had no money left after essential expenses is “increasingly smaller (21% in 2016 compared to 38% in 2013),” and, of this surplus income, “47% of Portuguese use it to make savings (a figure that is much higher than the European average of 36%) and 11% say they may invest it in a pension fund.”