Spain consumer confidence pessimistic despite improvement

Spain's consumer confidence increased by 5.3 points from July to August to 68.6 points indicating a pessimistic perception of the Spanish economy, the Sociological Research Centre (CIS) published on Tuesday. The consumer confidence indicator (CCI) ranges between 0 and 200 points with ratings of over 100 points considered as positive perceptions of the economic situation, while ratings below 100 indicating a negative one. Despite consumer confidence in August showed a pessimistic perception of the economy, last month the CIS registered the highest figure in a year while August marked the third month of consecutive rises in the CCI. The CIS attributed the improvement to better perceptions about the current economic situation and people's expectations for the future. Meanwhile, 47.6 percent believe the economic situation will get worse, 27 percent think it will improve and 20.2 percent think there will be no change. Regarding employment, a 44.4 percent of people expect the situation will get worse, while 27.8 percent believe the employment situation will improve. The CIS did a total of 1,400 interviews for the consumer confidence indicator which helps to forecast consumer behavior in the following months. Tuesday also saw the Ministry of Employment report that the number of people out of work in Spain had fallen by 31 people in August when compared with July. This was considered good news by the government as unemployment usually increases in August due to the end of the tourist season.