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Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Costa Rican consumer confidence erodes for second straight quarter

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November 27th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) continues its downward trend, according to data released by the Research Institute of Economic Sciences (ICSI) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Wednesday morning.

 

Consumer confidence fell from 49.8 points in May to 43.7 points in August and 40.8 points in November, a loss of nine points over the last six months.

 

The data shows that consumers continue to be concerned over the country’s economy, despite the upcoming holiday and bonus season.  Just 15% of consumers said they feel “optimistic” about their economic futures, 61% believe unemployment will continue to increase, 60% believe poverty will continue to increase, and 42% believe they will lose purchasing power in the months and years ahead.

 

The data also indicates that consumers are dissatisfied with the Solis administration’s handling of economic and social policy, with 52% describing the government’s performance in those areas as “poor.”

 

The ICSI began measuring consumer confidence in 2002.  The Consumer Confidence Index is measured quarterly in February, May, August, and November.  Researchers polled 711 heads of households for their latest report.

 

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  • Rusty

    Unless your in the elite class and have a government job , I see only despair among the people here eking out a living. The 15% would be the top class here.

    Taxi’s are lined up all over the valley trying to make the first 18,000 colones to pay their 12 hour rental fee along with gas.

    The hidden families usually single mothers with 2 or more children living in dangerous neighborhoods trying to figure out how to feed their children and no money to send them to school.

    Church Soup kitchens are sporadic however, even those who try and help are to broke to continue.

    CR boom days are well past now. It will be only survival.

    The teachers pensions are as well broke I just learned they are going to most likely cut pensioners amount each month. Whew! what a mess.

    I give thanks every day what I have. I share what I can .. For me everyday is Thanksgiving… IF we all could just help one family give back a little.

    • HONEST MAN

      I would also like to point out that CAJA pensions are running out of money very fast makes you wonder what will happen when the old politcians type can´t get there pensions of $ 10.000 a month. Greece is now Costa Rica may be worse.

      • disgsted

        Honest Man and Rusty, I could not have said it any better. And yes I give thanks as well what I have.

  • HONEST MAN

    I think its time the President of Costa Rica start looking at the oligarchy in Costa Rica. The oligarchy like Oscar Arias the Ex pres and his buddies like his brother and many in the PLN party that control many local companies as enemy of the country. The ruling class in Costa Rica have it in for PAC party from day one they used Intel and Bank of America Layoff and many other as a tool to kill any chance the new prez would have. Costa Rica has always had oligarchy families that do what they want and pay very little taxes and live better than the average person. The PLN party is full of these oligarchy types that hate the poor or middle class. Now that the PLN oligarchy have lost control they tell companies to leave like B of A and Intel they close hotels that never paid i penny in taxes for many years. Look at San Jose the Mayor Johnny Araya was Mayor for 20 years he never did anything and made $200.000 in salary a year and bought 1000 of acres of land on the coast with what money. You see the corupt oligarchy like Johnny Araya never see the problems they only see how can i make more money and get more control. Never fix anything roads,healthcare,sidewalks,police, est and steal what should be spent on those things for the people. I never liked Revolutions but against Oscar Arias and Johnny Araya we need to put these guys in Jail for never helping anybody in CR. The public sector Unions are used by PLN party so they can steal from ICE and CAJA and the poor and middle class.

    • SDPUS

      You are so very right, Honest Man!

    • prdatki

      Dam, very written I could not have said it better.

  • gringo torero loco

    What does a race of rude, insolent, irresponsible, ungrateful, dishonest, lazy, shiftless, arrogant, stupid people deserve? Hopefully they’ll get what they deserve. The complete economic collapse of the economy. Lets see the Dollar go to 600 Colones, or more. Go Nicaraguan Gran Canal.

    • Rusty

      Are you that crazy clown guy? Why would you live here if your not one of them and think this way.. Why the USA does not want you. Sicko!

      • Karen Mata

        No, I am…
        To be near you, Rusty

      • Guest

        Surely you were an “asshole baby”. Born in a bowell movement. Stupid.

    • disgsted

      Rusty, Hi this is the guy who rode the bull and got his hind end kicked about 8 yrs ago. He is a low life himself. He has been exposed on the “therealavenger blog” see for yourself.

      • Guest

        Hey Disgsted. It’s Disgusted. We know there’s a free lunch and an opportunity for you to steal today. See you there.

    • Karen Mata

      Try 1500, then 4000, using Argentina as reference. (They went 3:1 then 8:1 dollar) These are the legal exchange rates, the black market rates are truly staggering.

      I’d add sanctimonious.

  • gringo torero loco

    Wow. The Criminal Accomplices of the Deported Swindler Doug Smith are still here? I thought they all went into hiding when they got reported to the United States FBI. I sure never see them in public anymore. OH. That’s right. They can’t afford to come out! Not on Social Security.

    • Guest

      Hey. That Creep was an illegal alien for over eight years in Costa Rica. And threatening people. What a Fraud. I hear he’s in Big Trouble in Nicaragua too.

  • Ken Morris

    While a 9-point drop in consumer confidence over six months looks bad, and 52% giving the Solís administration a “poor” rating on economic matters isn’t good either, the reality is that Solís hasn’t even been in office six months and he only recently released an economic plan.

    I would be inclined to fault Solís for the tardy development of an economic plan, and correspondingly for failing to inspire initial confidence, but my guess is that the guy never expected to win the presidency so didn’t bother to prepare a plan. Come on, it wasn’t until a week or two before the runoff election that he began to attract winning support. Before then he probably assumed that he’d make his anti-corruption statement in the campaign and then slip quielty into the legislature.

    This said, Solís does now have a plan, and an ambitious one at that. We probably need to give it a minimum of a year before we can begin to assess its impact, and several years before we form a firm judgment. Economic policies take a long time to work their way through the pipelines. Thus, poll results now are really irrelevant.

    And for anyone unwilling to wait, I ask: What is the alternative? Business as usual isn’t an attractive alternative, since that’s what got the country its mess in the first place. Neither do I see any revolutionary movements or lesser alternatives in the wings.

    Alas, I think we’re all in the position of crossing out fingers and hoping that Solís call pull this off. It doesn’t even matter if we don’t like his plan. It’s the only one out there with any hope of succeeding. It either works or we’re all f#cked, and in about a year will start to see which outcome it will be.

    • HONEST MAN

      I want people to start thinking about Costa Rica goverment getting to the point that you might see the New Prez get over thrown in the next 2 to 3 months. Here are the reasons i say this.

      1. A crisis is being caused with all these companies pulling out. So far Costa Rica has lost 9000+ jobs since Prez took office

      2. Big down grade by Credit rating agency by Moody and Standard and Poor

      3. New goverment had a hard time passing a budget in a very divided congress

      4. Caja pensions are running out of money.

      5. Local Tourism aka Hotel are closing La Condesa and many more

      6. Crime is getting out of control in many area.

      7. High cost of living on food and power est

      8.National Debt is growing faster than every before

      9. IMF and World bank have stopped talking to Costa Rica goverment until they see massive changes

      The Rich people in Costa Rica are meeting with US goverment official aka CIA to make Costa Rica a living hell and stir thing up. I have heard that many ex PLN and Current PLN congress staff have traveled to US and met with CIA on how to get control of Costa Rican Goverment again. The facts are these Rich
      people hate any real change are losing any say because people are seeing they stole there country and sold there country for pennies to there buddies. This type of crisis is common when Rich people lose control look at Salvador Alende Pres of Chile he wanted to give some land to poor and that was it the CIA over threw him. Create the crisis and blame the current goverment. President of Costa Rica is being put in a place that he will have to make a choice to help the poor and middle class or listen to rich that steal everything. What we is what happens when Rich people want to get control. I have never see Oscar Arias the EX pres speak so much about how he hates New Prez.. Iknow he is paid by the CIA in the 1980 to 1990. I am not Socialist and the current Prez is not a Socialist but the rich need a enemy in CR its called the people to get control of CR govermet so they can continue stealing

      • Ken Morris

        Although I question the first of your nine points (I suspect that job losses just get noticed more than job gains) I agree with your other eight. (Well, I’m not sure about how divided the legislature is either.) In any case, the country is in serious economic trouble, and there is no dispute about this. What I don’t understand is how Solís can be blamed for it. This is a mess he inherited.

        Besides this, I find your expectation of the wealthy ganging up on Solís and possibly even remove him intriguing. I doubt this, since Solís is far too moderate to irritate them to this degree. The wealthy were much more fearful of a Frente Amplio victory. However, Lord knows there are financial interests that don’t like Solís and want to return to power themselves. Plus, with half the population already giving Solís poor marks for his economic management, the public support he needs to battle entrenched interests could wither.

        Let me ask my drinking buddies if they have any sense of a coup like this brewing. They have a better ear to the ground than I do, since hell I’m a gringo.

  • Michael Clarkson

    Well deserved, Karma has finally caught up to Costa Rica, CR’s financial peak came and went, is all down hill from now on. Nicaragua is the next Costa Rica.

    • Shamboodatay

      Lets hope Nicas are smarter. That wouldn’t be any great feat.

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