Ireland: Consumer confidence hits over decade low in April on worries over the fallout from Covid-19
The KBC Bank Ireland/ESRI consumer sentiment nosedived to 42.6 in April from 77.3 in March, marking the worst reading in over a decade and falling even further below the 100-threshold separating optimism from pessimism among consumers.
Concerns over the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated social distancing measures were behind the sharp deterioration in confidence in April. Consumers’ willingness to purchase large ticket items and their concerns over their personal finances in the year ahead worsened markedly in April from March. Moreover, consumers’ worries over future job losses as well as their perceptions of the general economic outlook deteriorated significantly.