The Trade Confidence (Icom) and Services (ICS) indices dropped in November, compared to October. According to the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the Icom retreated 10.8 points and reached 87.2 points, on a scale of 0 to 200, the lowest level since April this year (85.9 points).
The drop in confidence affected businessmen from the six trade segments surveyed by the FGV. The Current Situation Index, which measures confidence in the present, lost 12.6 points and dropped to 89.7 points. The Expectations Index, which measures perceptions about the future, dropped 8.6 points and reached 85.2.
services
The ICS had a more moderate drop than the Icom from October to November: -5.4 points. With the result, the ICS reached 93.7 points, the lowest level since March this year (92.2 points).
The drop was influenced by the worsening of companies’ assessments of the current situation and, mainly, of expectations for the coming months. The Current Situation Index dropped 3.1 points to 96.9, while the Expectations Index dropped 7.5 points to 90.7 points, the lowest level since April 2021 (88.7 points).
According to FGV economist Rodolgo Tobler, despite the end of the election period, political factors have become widely cited as limiting business improvement in the coming months, which increases the uncertainty of the scenario in the short term and a delicate macroeconomic environment in 2023.
