Consumer Sentiments of the Population as an Indicator of Socio-Economic Changes

Abstract

Transformation processes occurring in the socio-economic life of modern society, have a direct impact in people's minds, their sentiments, perceptions, estimates and, consequently, in behavior. An important area of research today is the use of the instruments for the study of socio-economic processes, which take into account subjective perceptions, evaluations, intentions, expectations and their impact on macroeconomic phenomena. One of these tools is the consumer confidence index (CCI) which is a multi-component indicator that is calculated on the basis of sociological information. This article examines trends in consumer sentiment of the Vologda oblast residents, examines the features of private components of the IPN study of consumer attitudes in terms of various socio-demographic and income groups of the population. The use of an index for macroeconomic research provides a rare opportunity to incorporate psychological factors when modeling and forecasting the economy. Preparation of forecasts of the socio-economic situation gives an opportunity to capture trends that are often difficult to detect using traditional econometric methods, and, on this basis, to make adjustments in the management of economic processes.