Fear of Job Losses Drives Down Consumer Confidence in Q2

Margaret Murphy, Digital Media Programme Manager at the Conference Board, interviews our resident Senior Economist for Europe, Ilaria Maselli about the consumer confidence results in Europe for Q2. In 2020 Q2, European consumer confidence saw its largest quarterly decline in the history of the series, driven by near record pessimism about job prospects over the next 12 months. On the whole, 74 percent of European consumers indicated that job prospects were “not so good” or “bad” in 2020 Q2 compared to 56 percent in Q1. Three factors will determine a possible recovery in confidence: the evolution of the pandemic, the end of the furlough schemes that have  been supporting jobs and incomes until now, and trust in government initiatives.