Consumer Expectations Survey

The Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) collects high-frequency information on the perceptions and expectations of euro area consumers about the economy, as well as their economic and financial behaviour. 

The survey helps us pursue our price stability mandate by improving the analytical basis for the ECB’s economic and monetary analysis. This in turn improves our understanding of financial vulnerabilities in the household sector and challenges to financial stability.

Survey development

The Consumer Expectations Survey was first piloted in January 2020. The pilot phase enabled a thorough evaluation of the quality and usefulness of the survey responses. The survey entered a new development phase in July 2021, aimed at further enhancing its overall coverage and quality.

The survey is conducted online each month. The results are used for policy analysis and complement other data sources used by the ECB.

The targeted sample size during the pilot phase was approximately 10,000 respondents and has now increased to approximately 19,000 respondents. The number of respondents targeted has increased steadily throughout the development phase, allowing better analysis of the behaviour of certain population subgroups and enhancing the overall quality and country coverage of the data.

Country coverage

The aggregate results published each month on this page initially covered participants from the six euro area countries included in the initial pilot: Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands. In 2022 work began on the collection of data for five more euro area countries: Ireland, Greece, Austria, Portugal and Finland. In February 2024, these additional five countries were included in the aggregated results.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is conducted together with an external research company. The ECB appointed Ipsos Public Affairs to provide advice and manage the “What You Expect” Consumer Expectations Survey panel. Respondents’ personal data are not shared with the ECB.

Main focus areas

The main areas of focus are: inflation; consumption and income; housing market activity and house prices; labour market conditions; consumer finance, savings and investment; borrowing and credit access conditions; central bank communication and the general economic outlook, monetary policy and other central bank-related topics.

Detailed information about the survey is available in the following two publications:

ECB (2021), “ECB Consumer Expectations Survey: An Overview and First Evaluation”, ECB Occasional Paper No. 287, December 2021.

Georgarakos, D. and G. Kenny (2022), “Household Spending and Fiscal Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from a New Consumer Survey”, 129(2022), Journal of Monetary Economics, S1-S14.

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