Merchant confidence fell to 21.8% in March, according to a Fedesarrollo survey.

In March, the Business Confidence Index measured by the Fedesarrollo think tank stood at 21.8 percent, a 2.7 percentage point decrease from the previous month (24.5 percent).

"The decline in confidence was explained by a 9.2-point drop in companies' perception of the current economic situation and a 1.6-point drop in expectations for the economic situation for the next half of the year, partially offset by a 2.5-point drop in inventory levels," explained the entity's director, Luis Fernando Mejía.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Confidence Index stood at 2.1 percent, representing an increase of 1.9 points compared to February. According to the think tank, this increase was explained by an 8.0-point increase in current order volume and a 0.9-point increase in production expectations for the next quarter, partially offset by a 3.2-point increase in inventory levels.

In addition, the Fedesarrollo report indicates that expectations for job creation in the industrial sector for the next quarter decreased by 3.4 points compared to the October-December quarter (2.7 percent in March 2025 vs. 6.1 percent in December 2024) and increased by 2.4 points compared to the same quarter of the previous year (0.3 percent).

The disaggregated results show that 13.0 percent of respondents believe that job creation in the industry will increase during the next quarter, nearly 76.7 percent said it will remain the same, while 10.3 percent said it will decrease.

For their part, industrialists' perception of the presence of smuggling activities stood at -4.2 percent, which implies a decrease of 7.6 points compared to the previous quarter (3.4 percent) and an increase of 1.5 points compared to the same quarter in 2024 (-5.7 percent).

Meanwhile, business owners' perception of this scourge in the industry showed a balance of -4.2 percent in March 2025 , which represents a decrease of 7.6 points compared to the result of December 2024 (3.4 percent) and an increase of 1.5 points compared to the figure for March 2024 (-5.7 percent).

Specifically, 19.3 percent of respondents said that smuggling increased during the January-March quarter compared to the previous quarter, 57.2 percent said it remained the same, while the remaining 23.5 percent considered it decreased.