Encuesta de Opinión Empresarial. Resultados abril de 2023

Abstract

In April 2023, the Retail Confidence Index stood at 11.1%, which represents 6.1 percentage points decrease compared to the previous month (March 2023 RCI: 17.2%). The decrease in the retail confidence was explained by the unfavorable perception of the economy for the next semester, which decreased by 12.9 pp. Likewise, the perception of the current situation of the companies dropped by 11.6 pp. However, the stock levels decreased by 6.2 pp. The result of April´s RCI is the lowest since July of 2020 (7.1%).

In addition, the Industrial Confidence Index (ICI) stood at -5.9% for the month of April 2023, a decrease in 9.4 percentage points compared to the previous month (March 2023 ICI: 3.5). The negative monthly variation in industrial confidence in April is explained by a 16.5 pp decrease in the production expectations for next semester. Furthermore, the industrial confidence result is also explained by the 10.0 pp drop in the volume of orders and the 1.7 pp increase in the stock levels. The result of April´s ICI is the lowest since November of 2020 (-6.7%).

In the first quarter of 2023, there was a negative quarterly variation in the exported value in dollars (44.7 pp), export orders (34.4 pp), profitability of export activity (29.8 pp), and expectations of the exported value in dollars for the next 3 months (10.5 pp).