In the wake of the second COVID-19 pandemic wave, consumers felt slightly more pessimistic as the consumer confidence index inched down by 0.2 index point to 91.8 during the third quarter of 2020 (Chart 1).
By the end of the third quarter, top of mind consumer concerns were the worsening economic conditions (87 percent) and the financial position of the government (84 percent), followed by their employment opportunities (72 percent). More than two-thirds of consumers (71 percent) indicated that they were still worried about their personal health, whereas 68 percent of consumers reported that they did not have trouble in meeting their basic needs. Most consumers perceived their household’s financial situation (60 percent) to have worsened, increasing 5 percentage points from the previous quarter (55 percent).
In the third quarter of 2020, the present situation index remained unchanged at 90.6, while the future expectation index rated 92.8, down from 93.3 in the previous quarter. In comparison to the second quarter, consumers were slightly more pessimistic about the future. Hence, almost 41 percent of consumers expected the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to last between 1 to 2 years, and 35 percent of respondents anticipated it to last for more than 2 years. In the third quarter, 79 percent of consumers reported that buying a car was not suitable. About 75 percent of consumers indicated that taking out a loan was not appropriate, while close to 70 percent reported that going on vacation or taking out a mortgage was unsuitable. As a result, the consumer purchasing habit index stood at 92, staying constant in the third quarter.
More information on the Consumer Confidence survey is available on CBA’s website https://www.cbaruba.org/
