According to Fedesarrollo, the Commercial Confidence Index stood at 20.5% in May 2026, down 1.3 percentage points from April.
Fedesarrollo’s Business Opinion Survey showed that lower confidence stemmed mainly from a 7.5 percentage point drop in perceptions of firms’ current economic situation. The decline was partly offset by a 2.5 point rise in expectations for the next semester and a 1.0 point reduction in inventory levels.
Fedesarrollo executive director Marcela Meléndez stated that “the 1.3 pp decrease in the Commercial Confidence Index compared to the previous month is due to a drop in the perception of the current economic situation of the company or business, partially offset by an increase in expectations of the economic situation for the next semester and a reduction in the level of inventories”.
Year on year, the index fell 0.5 points from May 2025. The three-month moving average stood at 21.7%, a 0.7 point decline from April 2026.