CBN: Consumers will boycott luxury items for the next 12 months

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has projected that most Nigerians will distance themselves from expensive and luxury items within the next 12 months.

This is contained in the ‘Consumer Expectations Survey for Q4 2020’ report released by the CBN’s statistics department.

TheCable had earlier reported that Nigerians’ overall confidence outlook for the fourth quarter of 2020 (Q4 2020) was pessimistic while the outlook for the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021) and the next 12 months is optimistic.

“This positive outlook could be attributed to the expected increase in net household income; an anticipated improvement in Nigeria’s economic conditions and expectations to save a bit and/or have plenty over savings in the next quarter and the next 12 months,” the report read.

According to the report, the overall buying conditions index for expensive and luxury items for Q4 2020 stood at 21.6 points.

CBN said this indicates that the majority of consumers believes that Q4 2020 was not the ideal time to purchase big-ticket items (luxurious items) such as consumer durables, vehicles and houses.

“Overall buying intention index in the next twelve months stood at 29.9 index points, indicating that most consumers do not intend to buy big-ticket items in the next 12 months,” the report read.

“The buying intention indices for consumer durables, motor vehicles and house and lot were below 50 points, which shows that respondents have no plans to make these purchases in the next 12 months.

“The consumers’ overall confidence outlook was pessimistic in Q4 2020 standing at -14.8 index points.

“Consumers attributed this unfavourable outlook to declining economic conditions, family financial situation and declining family income.

“Most consumers expect that prices of goods and services will rise in the next 12 months, with an index of 43.1 points – largely driven by savings, food and other household needs.

“Consumers generally expect the unemployment rate to rise in the next year, with the unemployment index for the next 12 months remaining positive at 36.9 points in Q4 2020.”