(QCOSTARICA) — pomers in Costa Rica continue pessimistic, according to the Consumer Confidence Index (ICC – Índice de Confianza del Consumidor in Spanish).
The ICC says the level of confidence stagnated in the last six months to a level of 40 points (on a scale of 0 to 100), with only 14% feeling optimistic.
The pessimism is 10 points below the level of May 2014, demonstrating a drop in confidence in the first year of the Luis Guillermo Solis administration.
However, that has been the trend during three of the last four governments, with the only exception the Oscar Arias administration of 2006-2010.
The problem experts say is that, when the consumer feels pessimistic, they drop consuming or investing, leading to a depressed economy.
The ICC says that 67% of the respondents believe the current administration to be “poor”, a significant increase to the 43% of last May.
“There is distrust in the economy, there is uncertainty,” said study manager Johnny Madrigal, of the School of Statistics at the University of Costa Rica (Escuela de Estadística de la Universidad de Costa Rica).
For Madrigal, the loss of trust is a direct response to the political situation in the country: the internal changes in the government, the situation at the Caja (CCSS – Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social) and the increased violence due to drug trafficking.
The results took in the responses of 703 heads of households in the metropolitan area of San José.
Source: Nacion.com
