Household consumption intention grows 1.4% in September, points out CNC

The Household Consumption Intention (ICF) registered 84.4 points in the month of September, advancing 1.4% in relation to August. The data were released by the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC) this Thursday (22). According to the entity, the result is driven by the improvement in the assessment of the job market and current income.

This year, the ICF had consecutive increases in all months, however, it is still below the level of 100 points, which indicates satisfaction, with a ceiling of 200.

Among the seven categories analyzed by CNC, two were above the level of optimism in September: current employment (112.2 points, an increase of 1.2% compared to August) and professional perspective (103.4 points, an increase of 1, 4% compared to the previous month).

The professional outlook had fallen in August. In the new survey, 47.1% of respondents have a positive outlook for employment in the next six months.

“We can see from the IBGE data that the level of unemployment is decreasing, reaching 9.1% [no trimestre encerrado em julho]the lowest level since 2015. In other words, people are being more employed and expect this feeling to remain in the coming months”, said Catarina Carneiro, economist at CNC.

“This improvement in the job market means that a greater part of the population is salaried and, with that, has a higher income”, he added.

The current income category almost reached 100 points and totaled 99.1 in September, being the second most influential component of this month’s Household Consumption Intention. According to the survey, “the increase in the value of Auxílio Brasil and the recovery of part of the purchasing power resulting from the deflations of July and August contributed to this.”

For families with an income of up to ten times the minimum wage, the assessment of current income was 94.2 points, an increase of 2.2% in relation to August. For Brazilians with earnings of more than ten minimum wages, the result was 122.1 points, up 1.9%.

CNC also highlights that the consumption perspective category accelerated 1.2% in September, with 80.6 points. If current income grew more among low-income groups, in terms of consumption, the increase was 2.9% in families with more than ten minimum wages (93.1 points) and 0.6% in families with less than 10 minimum wages. ten minimum wages (77.9 points). The assessment is that the poorest consumers are still cautious because of their economic vulnerability.

The ICF analyzes 18,000 monthly questionnaires from all units of the federation. In September, the only category with a drop in annual variation was the moment for durables, which recorded the lowest score, 42.9 in September and a reduction of 0.2% in 2022, as a result of high interest rates.