The indicator that monitors the Intention of Consumption of Families (ICF) recorded in January the best score since May 2020, with 76.2 points, released today (31) by the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC). The indicator rose 1.1% compared to the previous month and 3.6% compared to January 2021. 
The index was calculated through 18 thousand interviews carried out by CNC, and any score below 100 is considered below the level of consumer satisfaction, which has been repeated since April 2015.
Among the components of the indicator, Current Employment had the highest increase, at 2.6%, and is also at the highest level, with 97 points, still below the satisfaction level of 100 points. Access to Credit had the worst performance, with a drop of 1% in January. The worst score is from the Moment for Durables, which measures the intention to consume durable goods, such as vehicles, with 43.9 points.
The improvement in the Current Employment component occurred because the percentage of respondents who feel more secure with their job than last year rose from 23.4% to 25.2%, which is the highest since May 2020. , however, is still lower than those who feel less secure (28.2%) and than those who feel as secure (35.6%). Another 10.2% declared to be unemployed.
Likewise, the share of respondents who saw an improvement in their income compared to last year rose from 19.5% to 20.4%. On the other hand, 37.7% declared that their income had deteriorated throughout the year, and 41.4% said that income remained the same.
When analyzing these results, CNC stated that “they represent the evolution of the labor market, with the highest percentage since May 2020 of families who feel more secure with their job”.
“However, not all aspects of the economy are favorable. The high inflation and the increase in interest rates represent the biggest difficulties for consumers, both due to the reduction of purchasing power and the increase in credit. mitigating these effects in the perception of families”, says the confederation.
inequalities
The consumption intention of families with income above 10 minimum wages increased by 1% and reached 93.5 points, well above the 72.6 points calculated for families with income below 10 minimum wages.
Although the poorest families registered a monthly increase of 1.1%, slightly above the richest, in the annual comparison, there was an increase of only 1.7%, while the consumption intention of those with more than 10 minimum wages of income increased by 10.5%.
CNC also disclosed that the increase in household consumption did not occur in all regions, since in the North there was a 1.1% drop compared to the end of 2021 and a retraction of 11.2% compared to January 2021 .
