The latest Hispanic Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) released on Thursday reported that President Donald Trump’s approval rating with Latinos was 39 percent. The quarterly CSI survey, conducted by Florida Atlantic University’s Business and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI) also said that Latinos “are increasingly concerned about bad financial times ahead for their personal finances as well as the U.S. economy as a whole.”
The survey, which ran from January 1 through March 31, interviewed 500 Latinos and had a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percent. For the question about Trump’s approval rating, 10 percent of respondents said they were Republicans, 42 percent were Democrats, 39 percent were Independents and 10 percent were not registered. The 39 percent approval was in line with other national approval ratings taken around March 31, as well as the latest approval ratings. According to Gallup, Trump’s approval rating for April 12 was at 40 percent, with 54 percent disapproving.
In addition, the survey’s index was at 89.9, close to 10 points lower than the index’s December 2016 numbers, the last time the quarterly CSI was a monthly index. The first 2017 CSI also said that 57 percent of Latinos expected bad times financially for the next five years, although 57 percent saw business conditions as good for the next year.
“Driving this weakness in Hispanic consumer sentiment is pessimism about where the country as a whole is heading,” said Monica Escaleras, FAU BEPI’s director.
Other findings from the survey included the following:
- 68 percent said they were better off financially than a year ago.
- 60 percent said they think they will be better off next year.
- 54 percent think the economy will stay the same, 30 percent said it will get better and 16 percent said it will get worse.
- 46 percent said it would be good time to buy a house.
Here are the survey’s toplines: