The proportion of consumers in the Mediterranean who think their country is in economic recession: Portugal: 97 percent, Italy: 95 percent, Spain: 92 percent. In Italy FMCG retail sales augmented by 2 percent in value but decreased by 1 percent in volume in the fourth quarter of last year, if compared with the fourth quarter of the year before. From the Nielsen Growthreporter we learned that this was an improvement from the third quarter in 2011, when value sales were up 1 percent but volume sales were down 2 percent. 74 percent of Italians changed their spending habits to save money, most of them bought fewer new clothes. In Spain food retail sales generated 4 percent higher revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011 than in the fourth quarter of 2010; Nielsen registered plus 2 percent in volume sales. From 100 Spaniards who changed their spending habits 64 economise on going out and 61 save money on household energy usage. In Portugal FMCG value sales increased by 1 percent and volume sales remained stable in the fourth quarter of 2011. Portuguese consumers’ number one choice for economising was cutting down on energy usage. Only 8 percent of Portuguese consumers who said their country was in recession hope that they will get out of it within 12 months; the ratio of hopefuls was 12 percent in Spain and 22 percent in Italy.