Consumer confidence in Spain improves

Spanish consumer confidence levels are going in the right direction

April saw consumer confidence in Spain improve by 4.6 points, according to the country’s Sociological Research Centre (CIS).

Following the increase, confidence now stands at 56.7 points along the Consumer Confidence Index, which is based on a scale between 0 and 200 points. Any rating over 100 points is considered an optimistic level of confidence, while those below 100 indicate widespread negative or pessimistic opinions…

Annually, the CIS reports that Spain’s consumers are 12.8 points more confident in 2013 than they were in 2012. And while 56.7 points is still deep into the negative territory, the indications are that the average Spaniard is starting to feel a little better about their own situation than they were a year ago.

The Index is used to predict consumer behaviour in the coming months, and helps Spain manage its consumer demand – demand that has been hit hard in recent years as unemployment has risen and wages have fallen.

Recent figures from the country’s Economy Ministry show that Spain is running an export surplus for the first time in more than 40 years. Ordinarily, a trade surplus is an indication of a robust economy, but for Spain it points to a dramatic fall in imports – a result of diminished domestic demand.

The surplus is €634.9m; a result of a 15 per cent fall in imports when compared to the same period in 2012. Spain remains the eurozone’s fourth largest economy, a position that the Economic Minister attributed to a “continued process of re-orientating its sales to other markets where the economic outlook is more favourable, such as the Middle East, Africa and United States.”

Across the continent, the eurozone is now in its longest recession on record, with nine of the 17 EU member states in recession.