Federación de cajas de Ahorros Vasco-Navarras

It is a quartely consumer survey that using the Consumer Confidence Index reflects the Basque citizens confidence through the general economic situation and its future perspectives
The Consumer Index is quartely calculated by the Basque-Navarre Savings Banks Federation since 1983 through telephone enquiry with a similar methodology than the Spanish and European index.

In the first quarter of 2010, the Basque consumer confidence index stood at 81 points - 12 points down on the the previous quarter. Despite this fall, Basque consumer confidence continued its path of slow recovery following the minimum value reached in the second quarter of 2008.

There was a sharp improvement in Basque consumer confidence in the fourth quarter of 2009 (93, +21) to exceed that of both Europe (85) and Spain (79). The vast improvement in Basque consumer confidence was not reflected in demand expectations which remained at similar levels to those of the last six quarters. Major purchase expectations also remained stagnant, except in the case of vehicles where government aid incentives proved to be effective. While Basque consumers believed that the process of economic deterioration had been halted, they still expected the economic situation to continue to be difficult.

Despite the recovery recorded, Basque consumer confidence remained at clearly negative levels which were worse than those in the rest of Europe. The loss of confidence in economic recovery and the perception of a negative evolution of unemployment were responsible for the overall assessment of confidence remaining low.

The confidence of Basque consumers fell by a further 3 points to reach 67 points (the worst value in the last ten years). Although this was worse than European consumer confidence (71), it was an improvement on Spanish confidence (61). The growing pessimism amongst Basque consumers was largely due to the increasingly negative perception of employment (50, 45 and 39 in recent quarters) but also to a lesser extent to the negative perception of the other index components.

In the first quarter of 2009, consumer confidence remained negative although the confidence of Basque and European consumers (70) was slightly better than that of their Spanish counterparts (56). These results highlighted the magnitude of the confidence crisis throughout Europe.

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