The business journal 'Privredni Vjesnik' in cooperation with the GfK agency carried out a survey covering 600 Croatian households whose members were asked about their the economic outlook and their purchasing ability.
According to the results of the survey, published in the last week's issue of the journal, 31.7 percent of the households, covered by the survey conducted in the second quarter of 2004, believe that the situation would remain the same, while the results of a similar survey conducted in the first quarter of 2004 showed that 31.2 percent of households believed that the situation would not change in the next year.
According to the survey from the second quarter of this year, 9.7 percent of respondents assess that the situation will be much worse as against 8.3 percent in the previous poll.
Those with the answer 'I do not know' are on the rise from 22.3 percent in the first survey to 23.5 percent in the latest survey.
The number of the respondents who believe that the general economic situation will improve fall from 15.2 percent to 13.8 percent.
Almost a half of the households assess that their own financial situation can remain the same in the next year.
On the other hand, 17.2 percent (as against 16.8 percent in the previous poll) expect slight deterioration in the household budget, while 8.7 percent (as against 6.8 percent in the previous poll) fear that their financial situation will considerably worsen.
The consumers also assess that unemployment rate will remain the same.
As regards possibilities for saving money, most respondents do not believe that they will be able to save in the next year, and 34.3 percent of the households regard it as rather unlikely, and 45.5 percent as very unlikely.
Studying the results of the surveys, carried out in accordance with the European Union methodology, analysts conclude that a combination indicator -- Consumer Confidence Indicator -- was mildly on the decline from minus 22.5 percent in the first quarter of 2004 to minus 23.3 percent in the second quarter.