Hispanic consumers are spending less as optimism about their economic outlook dwindles amid inflation and economic uncertainty, according to a poll from the Business & Economics Polling Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.
Hispanic consumers are spending less as optimism about their economic outlook dwindles amid inflation and economic uncertainty, according to a poll from the Business & Economics Polling Initiative at Florida Atlantic University.
The Hispanic Consumer Sentiment Index read in at 81.2 for the second quarter of 2025, down from 85.7 in the first quarter of the year.
Overall, there was a decrease in optimism in four out of the five questions used to generate the Hispanic Consumer Sentiment Index.
“While Hispanic consumers continue to demonstrate notable resilience, our latest index shows their confidence has eased since the start of the year,” said Monica Escaleras, Ph.D., director of BEPI in FAU’s College of Business. “The drop from 85.7 in the first quarter to 81.2 in the second quarter reflects growing caution about both short- and long-term economic prospects.”
Fewer Hispanic consumers felt they were better off than a year ago (55%) in the second quarter of 2025, down from 63% in the first quarter of the year.
Regarding the short-run economic outlook of the country, 47% of Hispanics said they expect the country as a whole to experience good business conditions in the upcoming year, compared to 53% in the first quarter.
In terms of the long-run economic outlook of the country, 46% of Hispanics are less optimistic compared to 52% in the first quarter of the year.
Only 45% of Hispanics surveyed feel it’s a good time to purchase a big-ticket item in the second quarter, a decrease from 51% in the first quarter of the year.
“Fewer Hispanic households now feel better off than a year ago, and optimism about big-ticket purchases has slipped,” Escaleras said. “These findings suggest that inflation and uncertainty about the broader economy are tempering spending plans, even as a solid majority remains hopeful about their personal finances over the next 12 months.”
One question’s responses did remain the same – 64% of Hispanics felt optimistic about their future financial situation, unchanged from the first quarter, but 6 percentage points lower than the last quarter of 2024.
The poll is based on a panel sample of 540 Hispanic adults over 18 years old. The survey was administered using both landlines via Interactive Voice Response data collection and online data collection using Dynata. Respondents were sampled between April 1 and June 30 with a margin of error of +/-4.21 percentage points. Responses for the entire sample were weighted to reflect the national distribution of the Hispanic population by region, education, gender, age and income, according to the latest American Community Survey data. Full results can be found here.
-FAU-
