Results of the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters

In the ECB’s Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) for the third quarter of 2024, respondents’ expectations for headline inflation, as measured in terms of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), were unchanged for 2024 and 2025, at 2.4% and 2.0% respectively, and revised marginally downwards for 2026 to 1.9%. Expectations for core HICP inflation, which excludes energy and food, were revised upwards slightly for 2024 and 2025, reflecting data outturns and more persistent than expected services inflation and labour cost growth. Longer-term expectations for headline and core HICP inflation were unchanged at 2.0%.
Respondents expected real GDP growth of 0.7% in 2024, 1.3% in 2025 and 1.4% in 2026. Compared with the previous survey round, the expectations for 2024 and 2025 were revised up by 0.2 percentage points and down by 0.1 percentage points respectively, while those for 2026 were unchanged. The upward revision for 2024 largely reflects a stronger than expected outcome for the first quarter of 2024, with the profile thereafter largely unchanged. Longer-term growth expectations remained unchanged at 1.3%.

The expected profile of the unemployment rate was revised down over the period 2024 to 2026. Nonetheless, respondents continued to expect the unemployment rate to increase in 2024, to 6.5%, but to decline in 2026, to 6.4%, and then to remain at 6.4% in the longer term.