Prepared by Adam Baumann, Cristina Checherita-Westphal, Georgi Kocharkov, Steffen Osterloh Published as part of the ECB Economic Bulletin, Issue 5/2025. Fiscal policies in the euro area are increasingly shaped by a focus on defence spending in response to heightened geopolitical tensions. The February 2025 Munich Security Conference, the launch of the European Commission’s Preparedness Union Strategy in March and the conclusions of the June 2025 NATO Summit all underscored EU governments’ commitment to increasing defence spending. This box uses data from the ECB Consumer...

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Prepared by Adam Baumann, Luca Caprari, Maarten Dossche, Georgi Kocharkov and Omiros Kouvavas Consumer confidence plays an important role in determining economic activity. Thanks to timely availability and close co-movement with economic activity, analysts and policymakers closely monitor consumer confidence indicators to help them assess the strength of the economy (Barsky and Sims, 2012; Dees and Brinca, 2013; Ludvigson, 2004). They typically summarise information about consumers’ perceptions of current and future economic conditions and expectations for households’ financial situations and their...

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