<\/span><\/h2>\nThe leading consumer confidence indicator reflects expected trends in private consumption. It is based on assessments of the household\u2019s future financial situation, the country\u2019s future economic situation, expected unemployment levels and the ability to save money.<\/p>\n
In May 2026, all four components improved. The household financial outlook rose by 4.7 points, expectations regarding the country\u2019s economic situation increased by 2.9 points, the unemployment component improved by 1.8 points, and the assessment of the ability to save rose by 1.6 points.<\/p>\n
One notable feature of the data is the persistently positive reading for the ability to save. In May, this component stood at +14.8<\/strong>, making it the only element of the leading indicator that has remained clearly above zero for several months. This may indicate both stronger household incomes and a cautious attitude toward future uncertainty.<\/p>\n<\/span>The war in Ukraine remains a factor, but its perceived impact is easing<\/span><\/h2>\nThe GUS survey once again included additional questions on the impact of the war in Ukraine on consumer sentiment. The May results suggest a gradual normalization in the way this risk factor is perceived.<\/p>\n
In May 2026, 13.7%<\/strong> of respondents said the situation in Ukraine had a significant impact on their answers, while 39.3%<\/strong> described the impact as moderate. At the same time, 47.0%<\/strong> said it had no impact.<\/p>\nThe share of respondents who considered the war a major threat to the Polish economy fell to 22.3%<\/strong>, down from 24.8% in March<\/strong>. The perceived threat to respondents\u2019 personal financial situation also declined. Among working respondents, more than half did not report concerns about losing their job.<\/p>\n<\/span>Consumer sentiment remains below pre-pandemic levels<\/span><\/h2>\nA longer-term comparison shows how deeply consumer confidence deteriorated in 2022 following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the surge in inflation. The annual average current consumer confidence indicator fell to \u221239.8<\/strong> in 2022.<\/p>\nSince then, sentiment has gradually improved. The May 2026 reading of \u221211.3<\/strong> is far better than the crisis levels recorded in 2022, although it remains below the pre-pandemic highs. In 2019, the annual average BWUK stood at +7.7<\/strong>, while the leading indicator reached +4.0<\/strong>.<\/p>\nThis means that Polish consumer sentiment is recovering, but has not yet returned to the strong optimism seen before the pandemic and the inflation shock.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Key conclusions<\/span><\/h2>\nThe May data confirm that consumer sentiment in Poland is entering a phase of recovery after the weakening observed in April. The improvement is visible in both current assessments and expectations for the coming months.<\/p>\n
The main conclusions are:<\/p>\n
\n- The current consumer confidence indicator rose to \u221211.3<\/strong>, improving by 2.8 points month on month.<\/li>\n
- The leading consumer confidence indicator increased to \u22128.5<\/strong>, up by 2.7 points from April.<\/li>\n
- All four components of the leading indicator improved, indicating a broad-based recovery in expectations.<\/li>\n
- The ability to save remains the strongest component, with a positive reading of +14.8<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
- Concerns related to the war in Ukraine are gradually easing, although they remain present in consumer assessments.<\/li>\n
- Despite the improvement, both indicators remain negative, meaning that pessimism still outweighs optimism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For businesses and investors, the data suggest that Polish households are slowly regaining confidence in their financial outlook. This could support consumer spending in the coming quarters, especially if wage growth, inflation and labour market conditions remain favourable.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the recovery remains fragile. Consumers are still cautious, particularly in their assessment of the country\u2019s economic situation and their willingness to make major purchases. The direction of sentiment in the second half of 2026 will likely depend on inflation trends, real income growth and stability in the labour market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consumer sentiment in Poland improved in May 2026, according to the latest flash estimate published by Statistics Poland (GUS). Both key indicators \u2014 the current consumer confidence indicator and the leading consumer confidence indicator \u2014 increased compared with April, suggesting a recovery in household sentiment after the spring weakening. The current consumer confidence indicator (BWUK), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[301],"tags":[2794,2767,2669,64,51,2526],"class_list":["post-5469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-commerce","tag-confirm","tag-element","tag-gus","tag-poland","tag-ukraine","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ceo.com.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}