Moroccan Household Confidence Plummets in 2020, HCP Survey Reveals

The results of the HCP’s permanent business survey of households reveal that the household confidence index (ICM) stood at 61.2 points in the fourth quarter of 2020 against 60.6 points in the third quarter and 77.8 points in the same quarter of 2019. Based on these results, the survey showed that the standard of living of households and their financial situation have undergone a severe deterioration.

Thus, "more than 50% of households report a deterioration in the standard of living over the past 12 months... As for the change in their financial situation over the past 12 months, 46.6% against 6.7% of households consider that it has deteriorated," the survey said, revealing that during the next 12 months, 41.7% of households should expect a deterioration in the standard of living.

In addition, "in the fourth quarter of 2020, 85% against 6.7% of households expect an increase in unemployment over the next 12 months" and "33.6% say they are going into debt or drawing on their savings and 4.5% say they are saving part of their income," the survey pointed out. Furthermore, regarding the annual evolution of economic indicators, the HCP states that 57.1% of households note an improvement in the quality of administrative services against 16.5% who note its deterioration. The same observation applies to health services. As for education services, they maintain their deteriorated situation, with 49.4% against 20.5% of households having felt its deterioration in 2020.

The Household Confidence Index (ICM) is calculated from seven indicators, four of which are related to the general situation and three to the household’s own situation. These are the past evolution of the standard of living, the prospect of evolution of the standard of living, the prospect of evolution of the number of unemployed, the opportunity to buy durable goods, the financial situation of households, the past evolution of the financial situation of households and the future evolution of the financial situation of households.