However, the optimism is not as strong as it was 12 months ago, the Statistics Office said. This December consumer confidence is 15 percentage points lower than a year ago and ten percentage points below last year's average.

The households' financial situation outlook for the coming 12 months has improved by five percentage points. Most other indexes that show the opinions of consumers in 2012 and 2013 have increased as well.

The survey also showed that 28% of the respondents believe that prices of consumer products have increased significantly in the past year, while 43% said the prices have increased.

19% of the respondents said they detected a slight increase in prices, 9% say the prices remained level in the past year, while 1% said they were lower.