Consumer confidence in July slips to below pre-pandemic level
The economic climate indicator also decreased in July, after having increased between March and June, but it remained at a level above that of March 2020, the Statistics Portugal (INE) show.
Consumer confidence in Portugal decreased in July, retreating to a level below the start of the pandemic in the country in March 2020, after having increased significantly between March and May this year and slightly in June, the Statistics Portugal (INE) revealed on Thursday.
The economic climate indicator also decreased in July, after having increased between March and June, but it remained at a level above that of March 2020, the data show.
The decline in consumer confidence comes after increases over the past four months, although only tenuously in June.
“Last month’s evolution resulted mainly from the negative contribution of expectations regarding the future evolution of the country’s economic situation, with opinions on past developments, as well as prospects regarding the future evolution of the household’s financial situation also contributing negatively,” explains the institute.
A positive contribution to the indicator came from expectations regarding the future evolution of major purchases, but the balance of expectations about the economic outlook decreased “significantly” in July, after large increases between March and May, and the slight decrease observed in June.
Overall expectations regarding the future evolution of households’ financial situation decreased in June and July, after the increases observed in the four previous months.
INE’s confidence indicators were down in June in all the sectors surveyed: manufacturing industry (the largest drop), trade and services and construction and public works, with the confidence indicator in the latter sector, which had already decreased in June, registering a lower level than the one observed in March 2020.
The INE highlights that the manufacturing confidence indicator, which decreased in July, after having increased in May and June, thus interrupted the trend to the recovery observed in the last five months.
“In July, the indicator’s evolution was due to the negative contribution of all components, production expectations, opinions on the evolution of overall demand and assessments regarding stocks of finished products, quite intense in the first case,” it explains.
The confidence indicator decreased in all groupings, consumer goods, intermediate goods and investment goods, as well as the balance of assessments of overall demand, after having increased in the previous four months.
INE highlights that opinions regarding domestic demand, considering companies with production oriented to the domestic market, worsened in June and July, after having recovered significantly in the two previous months.
