Austria: Consumer sentiment stabilizes in February
Consumer confidence came in at minus 8.0 in February, matching the print recorded in January. As such, the index remained entrenched below the neutral zero-threshold and continued to signal prevailing pessimism among consumers.
The stable reading came on the back of more pessimistic views on households’ financial situation in the past 12 months and less upbeat views on their current financial situation being offset by less downbeat views on households’ financial situation in the next 12 months and optimism over the general economic situation in the year ahead. Turning to prices, views regarding inflation in the year ahead remained deeply pessimistic. Inflation has risen in recent months on pricier commodities.
Austria is highly reliant on Russian gas and the Ukraine-Russia conflict poses a key risk to the inflation outlook in the short near, which could weigh on household spending as stronger inflationary forces eat into consumers’ pockets.
Analysts at the EIU elaborated:
“We expect annual consumer price inflation to peak in the first quarter of 2022 and then to slow gradually as covid-related external factors such as supply-chain disruptions abate. […] However, an important risk to our inflation forecast is that the war between Russia and Ukraine could translate into a further spike in energy and other input prices.”