Consumer confidence keeps declining in CEE

Today, we will focus on consumer confidence in the region. Worryingly, it has been constantly declining since mid-2024. In January, the biggest deterioration in consumer confidence was reported in Romania, which dropped from -11.9 in December to -20.3 in January. On the other hand, in Czechia, Poland and Serbia, consumer confidence marginally improved in January. Despite such developments, consumer confidence is as low as it was at the end of 2023. The trajectory has been quite consistent across the CEE countries. After a wave of optimism in the first half of 2024, we have seen growing pessimism toward the end of last year. Consumer confidence is considered a leading indicator for the retail sector and private consumption growth.