Fundamental analysis · Beginner

Consumer Confidence and Sentiment Indices

A 1-minute lesson from the MarketPro academy, one of 24 in fundamental analysis.

Last reviewed 15 September 2026 by the MarketPro research desk · Editorial policy

Short answer

Consumer confidence indices measure how optimistic or pessimistic households feel about current and future economic conditions, based on surveys of consumer attitudes toward jobs, income, and spending plans. Because consumer spending makes up a large share of economic activity in many countries, shifts in confidence can foreshadow changes in actual spending behavior before it shows up in hard data like retail sales.

Because consumer spending makes up a large share of economic activity in many countries, shifts in confidence can foreshadow changes in actual spending behavior before it shows up in hard data like retail sales. A rising confidence reading generally suggests households feel more secure about their finances and job prospects, while a falling reading can signal growing caution.

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Confidence surveys typically ask about current conditions separately from expectations for the months ahead, and the gap between the two can be informative on its own.
Confidence is a sentiment-based, forward-looking indicator, so it can shift quickly in response to news events, even before those events show up in actual economic data.
Different surveys from different organizations can sometimes disagree, so it's useful to look at more than one source and focus on the trend over time.

Consumer confidence is best treated as a directional signal rather than a precise forecast, since stated intentions do not always translate exactly into future spending behavior.

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