Willingness to purchase gains new momentum

In March 2015 the GfK Complex Consumer Index was basically the same as at the end of last year at 164.8 points. The Consumer Expectations Index was down 5 points in Q1 2015: 179.6 points were measured in March. Willingness to Purchase grew by nearly 7 points to 148.5 points. According to GfK managing director Ákos Kozák, the most probable reason behind this trend is that the problem of loans in foreign currency has been settled; the development of real wages has also contributed to the positive trend. The proportion of those who count on an increase in the level of unemployment reduced. At the same time the proportion of those who think the unemployment rate will decrease grew to 28 percent. In March 2015 62 percent of people thought prices would rise – this is a smaller proportion than in last December. As for consumers’ attitude towards taking out loans, it basically didn’t change from Q4 2014: 28 percent reckon now isn’t the right time to take out a loan and 63 percent would never do so. What about savings? Consumer opinion isn’t the same as it was in December 2014: the number of those who don’t have savings decreased by 19 percent to 27 percent. The majority of the population, 41 percent still think the time isn’t right to spend their savings on purchasing the things planned earlier.