Economic sentiment indicator

06. Jul 2020
Economic barometer is falling

After remaining steady for the past 3-4 years, the consumer confidence index (CCI) went down from 32 in January to 16 in June, three months after the Covid-19 lockdown. This represents the biggest drop from one survey to the next since Statistics Faroe Islands started compiling these figures 14 years ago.

The consumer confidence index (CCI) measures future developments of household consumption and savings, based on answers regarding consumers’ expected financial situation, their feelings regarding the general economic situation, unemployment and capability of saving.

The table below shows the index figures from each of the five surveys. Details of each survey are available in the statbank.

Big drop in overseas demand for products from the primary sector and industry.

The confidence index in the primary sector and industry fell from 35 to -28, and the 12-month outlook is almost as dim as during the 2008 financial crisis.

Production in this industrial sector is heavily reliant on overseas demand and on how the number of overseas orders compare to an average figure. Whereas an increasing number of export firms reported higher-than-average numbers of orders from overseas over the past 2 years, most of them reported a big drop in such orders in the June 2020 survey.