By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

In his economic climate survey IOVEthe economic sentiment index in November, closed at the 2nd lowest value of the year at 106.1 points. Although expectations in retail trade and industry improved, construction, services and “traditionally” consumer confidence kept the general index low.

In fact, the construction index is at the lowest point of the year, while services are at the second lowest.

Despite the improvement in consumer confidence, Greeks remain the most pessimistic in Europe, light years behind Estonians and Slovenians who follow.

2/3 of households state that their financial situation worsened slightly or noticeably in the last 12 months. Just 3 in 100 said things had improved compared to last year.

As for the next 12 months, 60% expect their financial situation to deteriorate further compared to just 6% who expect improvement.

68% (from 69%) in October also expect a worsening of the country’s finances in the coming 12 months.

More than 2/3, 67% (66% in October) state that they “barely make ends meet” while the percentage of those who report that they “eat from ready meals” increased to 8% from 7%. Consumers who said they were saving a little or a lot made up 19% of the total, while the percentage of those who said they were “in debt” remained at 7-8%, as in the previous month.

In this climate, there is no reason to save. With the relative index worsening marginally, 84% (83% in October) do not think they will save in the next 12 months compared to 14% who think saving is likely.

Contrary to the above, the intention of major purchases in the next 12 months (furniture, electrical appliances, etc.) strengthened significantly. 52% (up from 58%) of consumers predicted they would spend less or much less, while 5% expected the opposite.

As for how they perceive the economic environment in which they operate, 64% are pessimistic and estimate that prices will continue to rise at least at the same rate, if not higher, over the next year. Marginal increase of 15% (from 14%) of those expecting stability.

4 in 10 predict a small or noticeable rise in unemployment from 41% in October.

The insecurity of consumers is also shown by the fact that 65.4% answer that they cannot easily or relatively easily predict their financial situation in the next 12 months.