December 2020 - CCI Chart 1

CCI Methodology

The ISET Consumer Confidence Survey follows the standard EU methodology (see Useful Links): we randomly sample 300-350 individuals on a monthly basis and question them about the past, current and future financial situation of their families and the country as a whole.Consumer confidence is the degree of optimism that consumers feel about the overall state of the economy and their personal financial situation. How confident people feel about stability of their incomes determines their spending activity and therefore serves as one of the key indicators for the overall shape of the economy. In essence, if consumer confidence is higher, consumers are making more purchases, boosting the economic expansion. On the other hand, if confidence is lower, consumers tend to save more than they spend, prompting the contraction of the economy. A month-to-month diminishing trend in consumer confidence suggests that in the current state of the economy most consumers have a negative outlook on their ability to find and retain good jobs. Read more