And while the economic slowdown in the second quarter is already in the books, looking ahead to the third quarter, the statisticians point to a new metric, called the consumer confidence index. They say it is on the pessimistic side right now:
Juan Blanco, Statistician 2
"The national consumer confidence generally trended downward since the beginning of this year. This can also be interpreted as an early indicator of economic activity for the year of 2025. As price increases, consumer confidence declines."
Jules Vasquez
"If there is continued decline in consumer confidence, is it an indicator that the economy may also be contracting?"
Jacqueline Sabal, Manager - Economic Statistics Dept.
"So we're measuring for this year so far that levels of consumer sentiment are in the pessimistic range."
"So persons, from what the CCI tells you, this means that persons are likely not to spend. So you can use this as an early indicator of GDP growth for the year. We're currently at around 47.4 for this year, still in the range of pessimism."
"So you can use that to guide where economic growth is likely to fall, which is not very high since persons are feeling pessimistic. So they're likely not to spend a lot of money."
We'll have more figures from today's SIB press conference in tomorrow's news.
