Austria: Consumer confidence unchanged in January
The consumer confidence index produced by Fessel-GfK came in at 12 points in January, matching the prior month’s reading, which marked the best result since September 2009. Subsequently, the indicator remained far north of the crucial zero-point threshold that separates optimism from pessimism among Austrian consumers.
A closer examination of the result showed a sufficiently broad-based improvement. Consumers were more optimistic about their financial situations in the next 12 months and only slightly less optimistic about their financial situations in the past 12 months. Meanwhile, consumers held a more favorable view on the general economic situation in the country in the year ahead, as well as in the past year. However, they expected unemployment to pick up in 2018 and considered the current situation to be less suited to making major purchases.