During the second quarter of 2021, consumers felt more optimistic as the consumer confidence index rose by 3.1 index point to 96.7.
By the end of the second quarter, top of mind consumer concerns were the price levels as 86 percent of those surveyed expected that prices will increase during the coming 6 months while 54 percent of respondents felt that their household’s financial situation was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic measures, which is 3 percentage points less compared to previous quarter (Q1-2021: 57 percent). Meanwhile, 46 percent of those surveyed reported that finding a job has become more difficult over the past 6 months (Q1-2021: 70 percent). Also, 46 percent perceived the financial position of the government to continue worsening, even though this is 19 percentage points less compared to previous quarter (Q1-2021: 65 percent). Although 21 percentage points less in comparison to previous quarter, 43 percent indicated that they were still concerned with COVID-19 being a threat to their personal health (Q1-2021: 64 percent).
In the second quarter of 2021, the present situation index grew by 4.6 index points to 96.7, while the future expectation index reached 101.3, a growth of 5.3 index points from 96.0 in the previous quarter, reflecting more optimistic sentiments amongst respondents. Half of those surveyed expected the Aruban economy to take more than 2 years to fully recover from the COVID-19 crisis (Q1-2021: 56 percent). In the second quarter of 2021, 67 percent reported that buying a car was not suitable (Q1-2021: 72 percent), 62 percent indicated that taking out a loan was not appropriate (Q1-2021: 67 percent), while 57 percent reported that taking out a mortgage was unsuitable (Q1-2021: 61 percent). Close to 50 percent stated that going on vacation was not appropriate (Q1-2021: 62 percent). Consequently, the consumer purchasing habit index stood at 94.4 in the second quarter.
More information on the Consumer Confidence survey is available on CBA’s website (https://www.cbaruba.org/).
