Consumers’ confidence in the economy dipped in Q3 – CBN report

By our reporter|A survey by the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that consumers’ confidence in the economy dropped in the third quarter 2020.

The survey conducted by the statistics department of the apex bank tagged ‘Consumer expectations survey’ report for September and released on Friday, said that consumers were pessimistic in their outlook

The report read in part, “The consumers’ overall confidence outlook dipped in Q3 2020, as consumers were pessimistic in their outlook.

“The index at -21.2 point was 25.0 points lower than the index in the corresponding period of 2019.

“Respondents attributed this unfavourable outlook to declining economic conditions, family financial situation and declining family income.”

The report further noted that consumers were however optimistic in their outlook for the next quarter and next 12 months with indices of 10.1 and 30.5 points respectively.

This positive outlook could be attributed to the expected increase in net household income, an anticipated improvement in Nigeria’s economic conditions and expectations to save a bit and/or have plenty over savings in the next quarter and the next 12 months.

Most respondents expected prices of goods and services to rise in the next 12 months, with an index of 36.2 points.

The major drivers were savings, purchase of car/motor vehicle, purchase of appliances/ durables, education, food & other household needs and purchase of houses.

It stated that the overall buying conditions index for big-ticket items in the current quarter stood at 20.1 points.

This indicated that majority of consumers believed that the current quarter was not the ideal time to purchase big-ticket items such as consumer durables, motor vehicles and houses.

Overall buying intention index in the next 12 months stood at 29.7 index points, indicating that most consumers did not intend to buy big-ticket items in the next 12 months.

The buying intention indices for consumer durables, motor vehicles, and houses were below 50 points, which showed that respondents had no plans to make these purchases in the next 12 months.