The Consumer Confidence Index (ICC) registered a balance of -2.4%, which means a increase of 8.0 percentage points (pps) compared to the previous monthaccording to the report delivered yesterday by Fedesarrollo.
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“This shows a recovery in consumer confidence, despite the fact that the indicator remains at negative levels,” the entity commented on the results.
That study center warned that the growth was supported by an increase of 11.8 pps in the Consumer Expectations Index. In July it was at 4.3% and in August it went to 16.1%.
In this regard, the responses were favorable regarding whether in a year’s time the household will be doing better financially and whether in the same period “we are going to have good times financially.”
For its part, the Index of Economic Conditions also performed favorably, increased 2.1 pps, since in July it was -32.3% and in August it stood at -30.2%.
“When comparing the results of the third quarter of 2022 to date with the results of the second quarter, the assessment of consumers on the situation of their homes increased by 0.8 pps and the assessment of the situation of their country increased by 7, 7 pps”, indicates the study.
Compared to the previous month, the ICC had a variation of 4.7 pps in Medellín, going from -20.7% to -16.0% between July and August, respectively. In the city of Cali, the ICC revealed by Fedesarrollo had a significant increase and went into positive territory of -8.0% in July to 7.8% in August. In Bogotá there was also an increase, from -10.1% to -2.0%, with an increase of 8.1 pps. Barranquilla advanced in the ICC, from 7.6 in the seventh month of the year to 8.9 in August.
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On the other hand, the city of Bucaramanga is the only one that appears with a setback in the measurement, from -6.2% in July to -6.6% in the following month.
As for the Consumer Confidence index by strata, the conclusion of Fedesarrollo is that there was an increase in all three levels, “in contrast to the previous month, where it decreased in all.”
in the stratum high in August 2021 was 2.3%, while for July 2022 it was -37.9% and for August it was -26.1%, which represents an increase of 11.8 pps in the last two months analyzed.
Households have low expectations about improvement in the coming months.
In the case of consumers who are in the middle stratum, between one month and another the increase was 8.5 pps. While in July the ICC was -12.7% and in the eighth month of 2022 it was -4.2%.
The low socioeconomic level achieved a positive figure in August with 1.6%, when last July it was -4.8%, which represented an increase of 6.4 pps. In August 2021 it was -9.8%.
In August, the indicator of willingness to buy a house stood at -29.1%, which It is equivalent to an increase of 6.2 pps compared to the previous month (-35.3%).
Willingness to buy a house fell in Bucaramanga (-26.2 pps) and in Bogotá (-2.9 pps). It increased in Barranquilla (9.5 pps), Cali (19.6 pps) and Medellín (30.8 pps) relative to what was observed in July 2022.
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The results of the indicator of willingness to buy a house disaggregated by socioeconomic level in August showed an increase compared to the previous month of the order of 14.8 pps in the high stratum, 2.5 pps in the middle stratum and 8.5 pps in the lower stratum. bass.
The balance of responses about whether it is a good or bad time to buy goods such as furniture and appliances was -44.9% in August. In July it was -44.7%.
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