Indexes
In May 2017, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) sustains its upward trend, increasing by 3.6 points compared to April (moving from -25.6 to -21.9). Its first component, the Present Situation Index, rises by 3.4 points (from -32.8 to -29.4), and its second component, the Expectations Index, goes up by 4.2 points (from -18.5 to -14.3).
The December CCI comes as a welcome gift to Georgian policymakers, truly sending season’s greetings from Georgian consumers. Despite the expectation that the index would stabilize at a new, lower level, consumer confidence has shown the largest monthly increase in the history of the study. Both the present situation and expectations indices increased significantly.
The November CCI data has all but reversed the uptick of confidence observed in October. The Consumer Confidence Index, which began to decline about a year ago, now seems to be stabilizing at a new and lower level. The breakdown of the index between different gender and educational groups suggests that intensive media coverage of particular issues and the diversity of information sources with different biases can significantly influence consumer confidence.
October CCI data suggest that consumers are finally sensing the end of the economic turbulence through which Georgia has been ploughing the last 12 months. Driven by a strong improvement in expectations, the CCI added 4.1 points, to reach -36.2 points. While assessment of the present situation remained fairly stagnant (up 2 points), consumer expectations soared (up 6.3 points).
In September 2015, the consumer confidence index experienced another drop of 2 points, crossing the -40 points margin to reach yet another historical minimum of -40.4 points. Responses to the question about making major purchases was the primary driver of this relatively modest decrease.