The ‘Portuguese Consumer Confidence Index’ covering the last quarter of 2016 rose to an “all time high” of 74 points, according to data released in the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence.
“The level of national consumer confidence exceeded that recorded in Finland (68), France (66), Russia (63), Italy (58) and Greece (53).”
The European Union average was 81 points and the global average was 101 points.
“The perceptions of Portuguese consumers have improved significantly: 36% (10 more percentage points year-on-year) they don’t consider their country to be in economic recession and 17% (an additional six points year-on-year) believe in an economic recovery over the next 12 months,” the Nielsen reads.
Aaccording to Nielsen, “23% of Portuguese have a good outlook when it comes to their professional situation over the next 12 months (with an improvement of eight percentage points year-on-year) and 36% are confident about their financial situation (seven more percentage points compared to 2015).”
The percentage of people surveyed who said they had no money left after essential expenses is “increasingly smaller (21% in 2016 compared to 38% in 2013),” and, of this surplus income, “47% of Portuguese use it to make savings (a figure that is much higher than the European average of 36%) and 11% say they may invest it in a pension fund.”