Consumer confidence still low

MasterCard Index shows
signs of improved sentiment

The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence indicated that local consumer sentiment remains low in the year’s first half, with an overall score of 27.

The Index measures five economic factors: Employment, the Economy, Regular Income, Stock Market and Quality of Life. It calculates consumer sentiment over a six-month period, using scores from zero (most pessimistic) to 100 (most optimistic).

Local consumers’ scores were more optimistic about Employment (27), Economy (20.7), and Quality of Life (20.2), compared to previous scores of 26.6, 16.4, 18.6 respectively in the previous period.

On the other hand, scores dropped when it came to Regular Income (38.1) and Stock market (28.3), down from 39.9 and 32.5 respectively.

The outlook for the coming months showed slight improvement. However, as in previous editions, the overall sentiment remained largely gloomy.

The index showed that consumers over the age of 30 were more optimistic than younger respondents (scoring 29.6 compared to 15.4). Male respondents were more optimistic than their female counterparts about the coming months (28.3 compared to 25.2).