March National Consumer Confidence recovered rising to 48.16 from 45.59 in February, a 5.6% m/m increase, but remained stuck in negative terrain. The improvement, suggests that consumers feel slightly more upbeat about domestic conditions and about economic measures espoused by the new President Mauricio Macri that has made a top priority to contain inflation and to settle a decade long dispute with the Holdout Funds.
At the same time, consumer confidence in the capital also recorded a slight improvement climbing to 47.31 from 46.38 while consumer confidence in the interior of the country rose above the neutrality line to 51.57 from 49.32 in the previous month.
Breaking down national results, we can see that all three components of the benchmark registered a positive change. For instance, personal financial situation increased to 53.23 from 45.59, macroeconomic outlook powered up to 65.44 from 62.78 and willingness to purchase durable goods and real state edged higher to 25.80 from 22.71.
It seems that despite the recent ARS devaluation and elevated inflation, government policies from the new govt. continue to enjoy some popularity and transmit confidence about the future. So long as inflation levels start coming down consistently and the currency stabilizes we could see further improvement in confidence indicators. Since the govt. will soon seal a deal with the holdout funds and be able to tap global debt markets, it is possible there will be stronger positive trend in confidence in upcoming months.
