With inflation remaining stubbornly high, consumer confidence remains low for the year ahead, according to the latest wave of research from B&A.
This wave of the B&A Consumer Confidence Barometer was conducted from the 2nd -14th of February 2023. With the housing crisis and inflation continuing, Consumer Confidence sees a slight drop from -54 in January to -57 in February.
Confidence continues to remain at a very low level, with 2 in 3 (67%) anticipating Ireland will be worse off in the coming year, and just 1 in 10 believe the country will be better off.
While confidence is low across all demographic groups, females, more blue collar (C2DE) social classes, and those living outside Dublin are most pessimistic. Consumer Confidence is particularly low in Connaught/Ulster.
Due to high inflation, almost half (46%) of the people anticipate having less disposable income in the upcoming year.
Not surprisingly, with less disposable income, nearly half (55%) of all consumers anticipate spending less in the upcoming year, while just 9% indicating they will spend more.
More than half (55%) are saving less, which indicates that people are eating into savings built up to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
Survey results are based on a sample of 1,000 adults aged 16+, quota controlled in terms of age, gender, socio-economic class and region to reflect the profile of the adult population of the Republic of Ireland. All interviewing was conducted via B&A’s Acumen Online Barometer.
For more details and the full report or more information, please contact Jimmy Larsen and Pooja Sankhe: jimmy@banda.ie and pooja@banda.ie
