The European Commission's flash estimate of consumer confidence for the European Union came in at -15.5 for August 2026, a less pessimistic reading than both the -16.3 expected by analysts and the prior month's figure of -15.9.

Key figures (EU consumer confidence, August 2026)

• Prior month (July): -15.9
• Expected: -16.3
• Flash estimate for August: -15.5

The month-over-month change represents an improvement of 0.4 points in the balance measure.

Household consumption is the largest component of economic output in the EU, which makes surveys of consumer mood a widely watched input for assessing the outlook for spending. The European Central Bank separately runs its own monthly Consumer Expectations Survey, adding to the survey evidence on households that policymakers and analysts track alongside hard spending data.

How the indicator is compiled

Every month, the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission releases the flash Consumer Confidence Indicator (CCI) for the EU and euro-area aggregates, using the data available on the cut-off date. The final Consumer Survey results are then published as part of the full Business and Consumer Survey release at the end of the month.

The flash figure is therefore subject to confirmation, and possible revision, when the complete dataset is published.

What the index measures

The CCI forms part of the European Commission's Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys, which polls households across EU countries each month. The headline number is a balance statistic — the percentage of optimistic respondents minus the percentage of pessimistic respondents — which can range from -100 to +100. A negative reading indicates that pessimistic households outnumber optimistic ones.

The indicator is an average of consumers' answers to forward-looking questions covering the next 12 months: their expected household financial situation, the general economic situation, unemployment expectations (with an inverted sign), and intentions to save.

August's reading of -15.5 keeps the indicator in negative territory, where it has spent much of its history. The depth of that pessimism has varied widely over the decades: the balance fell to record lows in the autumn of 2022, when the surge in energy prices that followed Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine darkened households' outlook, before subsequently recovering from those lows. At -15.5, pessimistic respondents still clearly outnumber optimistic ones, though the reading sits well above the crisis trough. Because the flash estimate is published shortly after the cut-off date, it is among the first official snapshots of European consumer sentiment available each month, with the detailed breakdown by component and country following in the end-of-month Business and Consumer Survey release. That release also updates the business-side confidence indicators — covering industry, services, retail trade and construction — compiled under the same harmonised programme, giving the next scheduled look at sentiment across the wider economy.

Source: InvestingLive