Euro zone consumers brace for recession and high inflation - ECB survey

Reuters

Published Aug 04, 2022 03:04AM ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Consumers in the euro zone are bracing for the economy to shrink and for high inflation to continue eating into their income in the next year, a European Central Bank survey showed on Thursday.

The Consumer Expectations Survey, used by policymakers for input in their deliberations and published on Thursday for the first time, showed households were beginning to lose faith in the ECB's ability to bring inflation back down to its 2% goal.

The poll, carried out in June, showed the median consumer expected prices to grow by 5% over the following year and saw inflation at 2.8% in three years' time.

This compares to expectations for nominal income to grow by 0.9% and spending by 3.9%, implying a large dent in households' ability to save.

Consumers also expected the economy to contract by 1.3% in the coming 12 months.

By comparison, the ECB expects inflation to average 6.8% in 2022 before falling to 3.5% in 2023 and 2.1% in 2024. It sees growth at 3.7% this year, 2.8% next year and 1.6% in 2024.

The ECB raised interest rate by 50 basis points last month and guided for more hikes in the months ahead to fight record-high euro zone inflation, which hit 8.9% last month.