A survey by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has indicated that consumers are planning to reduce their savings and investments in the coming months due to the rise in the prices of goods and services compared to their income.
Disclosing this in its ‘Household Consumer Expectation Survey Report (CES)’ for August 2024, the apex bank also stated: “Consumers do not plan to spend a substantial portion of their income on big-ticket items such as the purchase of house (-65.7 points), purchase of car/motor vehicle (-65.6 points), and purchase of appliances (- 44.5 points).
“Additionally, they have little intention of allocating significant income to investments (-43.7 points) and savings (-33.7 points).
“This reflects their current financial situation and reinforces their expectation of possibly drawing down on savings or going into debt.
“This trend is expected to persist over the next three months, with consumers anticipating spending on similar items: food and other household items (70.9 points), education (43.1 points), transportation (35.7 points), electricity (24.3 points), and medical expenses.”
Meanwhile, businesses and households expect the inflation rate to abate in the next six months, while noting that the current inflation rate is too high.
They disclosed this in the CBN’s Inflation Expectation Survey Report which also showed that the majority of the respondents expect the apex bank to reduce interest rate.
“The overall perception of inflation rate in the current month showed that 84.9 percent of the respondents were of the view that the current level of inflation was too high, culminating to an index of -63.2 points
“The major factors that played a crucial role in shaping the perception of inflation among both businesses and households were energy cost, transportation and exchange rate.
“In line with the perception of inflation, respondents opined that their expenditure increased in the current month, as indicated by a positive index of 35.4 points.”
Vanguard
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