Euro area consumer confidence fell to −17.9. Do household surveys feature in your euro view?

The European Commission's flash estimate put euro area consumer confidence at −17.9 in October, and the EU figure at −17.3, on 22 October (consumer confidence report). The Commission describes the indicator as having declined in October.

Household surveys tell you how people feel about their finances and jobs, which is useful for thinking about spending. But sentiment and spending do not always move together, and the flash is revised. For the euro, the question is whether households' mood changes the ECB's view of inflation and growth. The Commission runs business surveys alongside this one, so consumer confidence is often read next to the sentiment data for industry and services.

We would like to hear how you use household surveys:

• Do you include consumer confidence in your euro view, or ignore it as sentiment?
• Which part of the indicator, finances or unemployment expectations, matters most to you?
• How do you weigh a household survey against hard retail data?
• Have you seen the euro react to a consumer confidence print, and did the reaction last?

For the euro area's retail volumes, see retail sales for August. How inflation moves currencies covers the link to the euro.

Please share your own approach and reasoning, not calls for others to copy. Posts that promise a direction or sell signals will be removed.