Prince Henri Auditoire 02 BW

Consumer confidence survey

07.05.2019

**** Important notice:

The Banque centrale du Luxembourg has revised the composition of its consumer confidence indicator. As of January 2019 and in line with the European Commission’s revised methodology[1], the Luxembourg consumer confidence indicator results from the average of the four balances related to: (1) consumers’ expectations of the general economic situation in Luxembourg; (2) the perception of their financial situation over the past 12 months; (3) their expected financial situation over the next 12 months; and (4) their intended spending on major purchases (furniture, electrical devices…).

The revised Luxembourg consumer confidence indicator has been recomputed over the entire historical period (January 2002-December 2018). ****

 

Consumer confidence recedes in April 2019.

The Banque centrale du Luxembourg’s consumer confidence indicator has receded in April 2019.

The components of the indicator have evolved in contrasting ways this month. In April, households’ expectations of the general economic situation in Luxembourg have rebounded while households’ perceptions of their financial situation have stabilised. In the meantime, households’ expectations of their financial situation have deteriorated sharply and consumers’ intentions in terms of major purchases were strongly revised downwards.

In total, the consumer confidence indicator, which is the arithmetic mean of the four components[2], has receded in April 2019.

The results are presented in the table below:

 

 

Consumer confidence indicator

Expected general economic situation in Luxembourg

Perception of financial situation of households

Expected financial situation of households

Intended spending on major purchases

2017

April

-2

6

3

3

-20

 

May

0

8

3

2

-13

 

June

2

6

3

3

-2

 

July

-1

9

2

3

-17

 

August

-1

7

1

2

-14

 

September

1

11

1

7

-15

 

October

-1

11

0

3

-15

 

November

2

10

5

6

-13

 

December

-1

4

4

3

-16

2018

January

3

15

5

6

-14

 

February

1

10

3

3

-14

 

March

-2

4

2

6

-18

 

April

-3

4

1

3

-20

 

May

-2

6

1

5

-19

 

June

-3

3

2

4

-20

 

July

1

8

4

5

-14

 

August

-2

2

3

5

-16

 

September

-1

4

5

3

-17

 

October

-2

4

3

6

-24

 

November

1

8

4

6

-12

 

December

-1

8

2

4

-17

2019

January

1

6

4

5

-12

 

February

-1

3

-1

5

-11

 

March

2

2

1

7

-2

 

April

-1

4

1

1

-8

Note: The consumer confidence indicator results from the average of balances related to (1) consumers’ expectations of the general economic situation in Luxembourg; (2) the perception of their financial situation over the past 12 months; (3) their expected financial situation over the next 12 months; and (4) their intended spending on major purchases (furniture, electrical devices…). Balances are constructed as the difference between the percentages of respondents giving positive and negative replies.

This survey is co-financed by the European Commission.

[1] European Commission (2018) “A revised Consumer Confidence Indicator”, note dated 21 December 2018 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/revised-consumer-confidence-indicator_en).

[2] The four components of the consumer confidence indicator are seasonally adjusted.