Jack Allen-Reynolds from Capital Economics stated in a report that the slight increase in the European Commission's consumer confidence index has not changed the overall situation of this index dropping to extremely low levels since February.

He said that in May, this barometer for the Eurozone rose from minus 19.0 in April to minus 20.6, still close to the level seen at the bottom during the global financial crisis and the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. This suggests that forecasts for a slight expansion in second-quarter consumption may be overly optimistic. He stated that, in fact, the decline in consumer confidence since the outbreak of the Iran war, as well as the weakness in business surveys, indicate that the region's economy may contract in the second quarter.