Denmark: Consumer confidence falls to lowest level of the year in September
The consumer confidence index released by Statistics Denmark dropped from 7.8 points in August to 6.9 points in September, the lowest level since December 2017. Despite the drop, the index nevertheless remains comfortably above the crucial zero-point mark that separates optimism from pessimism among consumers, where it has been since January 2017.
The decline registered in September largely reflected a deterioration of consumer sentiment regarding their own financial situation and the general economy at present and in the past 12 months. This decline was however partly offset by higher confidence regarding economic conditions in the year ahead. Moreover, consumer sentiment improving for most of the forward-looking metrics measured in the survey.
Notably, consumers were less pessimistic in September about the state of the labor market in the next 12 months as well as their propensity to make major purchases, and became more optimistic regarding their own financial situation in the future. Their view of the general economic outlook meanwhile improved marginally.