A slight drop recorded consumer confidence in September, according to the Consumer Perception Index (Ipeco) developed by the Center for Economics and Business Studies of the University of Development.
According to Pulso, during the ninth month of the year, confidence fell 3.8 points, a drop of 26.9 points in the last 12 months.
Meanwhile, confidence today ranged only 0.3 points, while confidence in the future fell 5.0 points from a pessimistic to very pessimistic level.
Disaggregated by socioeconomic strata, confidence in ABC1 remains extraordinarily pessimistic, the C2 very pessimistic, as does the C3. While D increased from pessimistic to moderately pessimistic. Finally, stratum E receded from moderately pessimistic to very pessimistic.
Meanwhile, at the regional level, confidence in the Metropolitan Region receded although it remains moderately pessimistic, while in the Biobío Region it declined from very pessimistic to extraordinarily pessimistic.
In this regard, the author of the measurement, Cristián Echeverría, details that “a year ago, in September 2019, before the social outburst, the Ipeco was at a slightly pessimistic level (98 points), close to the historical average for the index (neutral level), while in September 2020 it was at a very pessimistic level, 71 points, that is, almost 27 points less than a year ago. This difference is mainly explained by the drop in the temperature rate, which has fallen from 145 to 51 points, which in turn is due to declines in the two perceptions that make up the index, the perception of the current economic situation and current unemployment.”
For Echeverria, “it is common to see a higher level of confidence in the future than at present, both in the Ipeco and in other indices in Chile and the world”, although it warns that the gap between the two indices is currently wider than historically observed, “which could reflect that consumers have indeed felt the impact of the economic crisis generated by the pandemic”.
