2023-05-20 15:00:54
He GfK Euro Consumer Climate April showed improvements in the indicators analyzed such as economic expectations, household income forecast and willingness to buy among families. However, it continues “without leaving values that denote pessimism.
The negative results continued to be present in April in Spain and the rest of Europe in all indicators, especially in the intention to make large disbursements. GfK has indicated that there is still caution regarding what the future of local economies will be in the short term, although more than half of them (59%) have experienced increases in this indicator.
Thus, April closed with a small recovery in the GfK confidence indicator, which rose to -18 points. This improvement of 7 points, the largest obtained since December 2022, places Spain in position 16 out of 29. Thus, it climbs one position from the fall in March and is seven points behind the European total (-11).
Compared with the main economies of the continent, Spain is behind Germany (the only one with positive values, with +14 points) and Italy (-3) and moves away from Portugal (-25), the United Kingdom (-24) and France (-3. 4).
In April, values similar to February were recovered in the income forecasts for Spanish households, with an increase of 9 points. The indicator stands at -13 points, placing Spain four points above the EU total (-17) and in position number 14 out of 29.
Again, Italy (-9) and Germany (-11) show less negative values than Spain. With worse expectations are Portugal (-24), the United Kingdom (-25) and France (-33).
The spending intention of Spanish households continues to be very negative, as is the case in the rest of the countries analysed. The indicator for the total for the EU stands at -31, which indicates that the contraction of consumption in Europe will continue in the short term, according to GfK. Spain (-29) despite increasing 11 points and offsetting the fall in March, is not very far from the global situation in Europe.
The market analysis company has explained that when looking at the behavior of this indicator over the last six months, an improvement is detected in 17 countries, although in a much smaller proportion than in other previous indicators (economic expectations and income forecasts).
This month of April, for the fourth consecutive time, improvements have been recorded, as GfK has pointed out, which makes it possible to state that Europeans “timidly and slowly begin to regain confidence, although they are still at critical values”.
In the case of the economic expectations of Europeans, although they improved five points in April to -11, only one country registered a positive balance: Germany (+14).
Income expectations have grown 9 points on the continent, although the indicator remains negative (-17). Of all the countries analysed, only six present positive forecasts for their household economies, with Lithuania (+14) leading the ranking.
Europeans’ willingness to buy stands at -31, being the indicator that improves the slowest and the one that yields the most pessimistic data. In April, Bulgaria (+12) and Hungary (+8) are the only states with positive values.
GfK has concluded that 15 of the 29 countries analyzed improve their spending forecasts, with Denmark reporting the highest increase, with 14 points. Despite this, this country is one of the most pessimistic in the region (-52 in March and -38 in April)
#Economic #expectations #improve #Spain