Consumers hold back on big purchases amid uncertainties in July- CBN survey
Consumers hold back on big purchases amid uncertainties in July- CBN survey
Nike Popoola
Majority of households believed that July was not an ideal time to purchase big ticket items like consumer durables, motor vehicles, buildings & landed properties.
The Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) disclosed in its report titled, ‘Household Expectations Survey July, 2024.
The July 2024 Household Expectations Survey comprising the Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) and Inflation Attitude Survey (IAS) was conducted during the period of July 22-26, 2024, with a response rate of 99.7 percent.
The sample size was 1,665 households, drawn from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Master Sample List of Households, which is considered a representative sample of households nationwide.
The excerpts of the report are as follows, “Overall outlook of consumers in July 2024 was downbeat, as consumers anticipated drawing down on their savings or getting into debt.
“On average, more households expect increased expenditure on basic commodities and services across all periods under review.
“Majority of consumers believed that the review period would not be an ideal time to purchase big ticket items like consumer durables, motor Vehicles, and buildings & landed properties.
“Majority of the consumers expect the Naira to depreciate, while borrowing rate, inflation rate and unemployment rate will rise in the current month.
“Respondent households believed that the economy would end up weaker rather than stronger if prices started to rise faster than they do now.
“Given a trade-off between inflation and interest rate, the majority of respondents would prefer lower interest rates.
“Majority of the respondents are aware that MPC (CBN) sets Interest Rate and their decisions influence short term interest rate in Nigeria.”