According to a report released by the Statistics Office on Monday, the February value of the index was also five points above the long-term average.

Compared to the month before, the index declined in all the components. Consumers' expectations about employment and the state of economy deteriorated by 9 and 6 points, respectively.

Consumers are also more pessimistic about the outlook for savings and household finances, with the respective values down by 4 and 2 percentage points.

But year-on-year the values of all sub-indices improved, with expectations about the availability of jobs and the state of economy surging by as much as 17 points.