Returns from the first edition of a planned quarterly Survey of Consumer Sentiment across ten Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states indicate that an average of only 14 per cent of consumers in those countries – Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines and St Kitts think highly of their governments’ economic policies.
The results of the survey, conducted by the Department of Management Studies of the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus, indicate that considerably less than half of the population in any of the countries surveyed consider their governments to be doing a “good job” in the handling of economic policies.
Of the countries surveyed Vincentians gave their government a 30 per cent “good job” rating, the highest among the countries surveyed. Barbadians give their government a 19.3 per cent “good job” rating for its handling of economic policies. Only 11.1 per cent of Guyanese surveyed give the government a “good job” rating for its economic policies. Other scores listed in the results of the survey rated Dominica at 17.7 per cent, Grenada at 9.6 per cent, Antigua at 8.4 per cent, St Kitts at 8 per cent, Trinidad and Tobago at 5.2 per cent and St Lucia at 2 per cent.
Of the countries surveyed Grenada gets the highest approval rating (54.7%) for an “only fair” job by government in the handling of economic policies while 44.5 per cent of Barbadians, 39.3 per cent of Guyanese, 37.8 per cent of Trinidadians and 37.1 per cent of Vincentians give their governments the identical (“only fair”) rating on their handling of economic policies.
Meanwhile more than 25 per cent of respondents in each of the countries surveyed rate their governments’ handling of economic policies as “poor” with 63.4 per cent of Jamaicans, 55.6 per cent of Kittitians, 51.9 per cent of St Lucians, 50.5 per cent of Trinidadians and 46.5 per cent of Antiguans giving their governments a “poor” rating for their handling of economic policies. According to the survey 43 per cent of Guyanese rate the government’s handling of economic policies as “poor.”
The UWI survey which measured consumer perceptions and expectations among 6,157 respondents in the ten Caricom countries surveyed required a minimum of 500 responses from each participating country to enable it to be included in the survey.
According to the survey, at the end of the first quarter of this year the Caricom Consumer Sentiment Index stood at 68 and the outcome of the study states that “the fact that the index value is less than 100 suggests that a majority of consumers are generally pessimistic about their personal financial situations and general business and economic conditions in their respective countries.
While respondents gave their governments relatively low ratings for their handling of economic policies the overall results of the survey indicate that across the region, Consumer Sentiment Index ratings range from a high of 85 in Guyana to a low of 53 in St Lucia. suggesting that consumers in Guyana, St, Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are among the more optimistic while consumers in St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and Antigua are among the most pessimistic. Consumers in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica are “around the Caricom average” the study says.
In the category of Consumer Expectations the study indicates that regional expectations range from a high of 61 in Guyana to a low of 47 in Jamaica. Consumers in St Vincent are reported to have the second highest level of expectation while consumers in St Lucia, St Kitts,& Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda have to most “negative outlooks.” Consumers in Barbados, Grenada, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago are listed as having “around the Caribbean average” in terms of expectations.
Assessments of Current Economic Conditions among the Caricom countries surveyed reflect scores ranging from a high of 91 in Guyana to a low of 47 in St Kitts and Nevis with high ratings of current economic conditions also being reflected in Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines and consumers in St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Lucia giving the lowest ratings to current economic conditions. Consumers in Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are around the Caribbean average in their assessment of current economic conditions.
The results of the survey suggest that “over the last year the current personal financial situation of a majority of persons in Guyana and St Lucia have either remained the same or gotten better. Overall, index scores in this category range from 112 in Guyana to 50 in St Kitts and Nevis, while a “majority” of persons in Trinidad and Tobago Dominica and Barbados have seen their personal financial situation either remain the same or worsen and a “sizeable majority” of persons in St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Jamaica have either seen their personal situations remain the same or worsen. According to the survey, “things have been pretty even” in St Vincent and Grenada.
Meanwhile, according to the survey, respondents in Guyana and St Vincent expect their personal financial situations to stay the same or get better.
This sentiment is shared by a majority of Barbadians, St Lucians and Dominicans while a majority of consumers in St Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Grenada expect their personal situations to stay the same over the next year.
And while a majority of respondents to the survey consider Current Buying Conditions in their respective territories to be “bad,” the survey indicates that Grenadians, with a score of 126 are the most positive about buying conditions while St. Lucians, with a score of 44 are the least positive. Overall, the results suggest that a majority of consumers in Grenada, Guyana, and St Vincent thought it was a good time to undertake major purchases while a majority of consumers in Jamaica, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and especially St Lucia thought it was a bad time to undertake major personal expenditure.
The report concludes that “in general consumers in Guyana and St Vincent & the Grenadines are the most optimistic in Caricom while consumers in Antigua & Barbuda, are the most pessimistic,” the report adds, attributing this outlook to “the fact that Guyana and St Vincent & the Grenadines are among the least tourism and international financial services-dependent economies in Caricom.
Hence consumers in those countries may have suffered less from, the impacts of the global recession and the ensuing slow recovery,” the report adds.
