Energy and food shocks have impacted consumer spending in recent years. A new dataset of aggregated and anonymised monthly payment card spending for 12 European countries shows how these shocks led to weak growth of “everyday spending” by consumers with shifts across spending categories and important regional differences.

By Juergen Amann (OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities), Sebastian Barnes and David Haugh (OECD Economics Department) and Luis Monteiro and Sidharth Goel (Mastercard Economics Institute)

Population ageing and climate change will strain Hungary’s public finances. The 2026 Economic Survey of Hungary sets out recommendations to rebuild fiscal space and lift growth. The budget and medium-term fiscal plan that the new government is preparing will provide key opportunities to start addressing these challenges.

by Pierre-Alain Pionnier and Michaël Sicsic, OECD Economics Department

The recent, and recurrent, heatwaves across France and Europe are a reminder that climate change is already affecting people’s health, businesses’ productivity and the country’s infrastructure. Strengthening prevention will be essential to limit losses, but adaptation must go hand in hand with faster emissions reductions.

by Nikki Kergozou, OECD Economics Department

L’economia italiana ha dimostrato una notevole resilienza di fronte ai principali shock esterni di questo decennio, ma i redditi sono cresciuti meno che in altri  Paesi dell’OCSE e nuove e significative sfide si profilano all’orizzonte. L’Indagine Economica OCSE sull’Italia 2026 delinea le priorità per affrontarle, rafforzare le finanze pubbliche e aumentare la produttività e i redditi.

Tim Bulman and Emilia Soldani, OECD Economics Department

English version

Italy’s economy has been resilient to this decade’s major external shocks but incomes are lagging behind OECD peers, and significant new challenges loom. The 2026 OECD Economic Survey of Italy outlines priorities to meet these, strengthen the public finances and raise productivity and incomes.

by Tim Bulman and Emilia Soldani, OECD Economics Department

Versione italiana 

Slovakia’s successful export‑driven growth model is under pressure from global shifts, technological change, and a weakening productivity trend. Sustaining convergence will require structural reforms to improve the business climate, boost innovation, and address skills gaps.

By Erik Frohm, OECD Economics Department

Current account imbalances are back at the centre of global policy debates, as persistent surpluses and deficits interact with trade tensions and external vulnerabilities. This blog shows that imbalances mainly reflect differences in saving behaviour, and that reducing them will require tailored domestic reforms in both deficit and surplus economies.

By Erik Frohm, John Hooley, Fatih Ozturk, Łukasz Rawdanowicz and Nivetha Sivakumar, OECD Economics Department

The escalation of conflict in the Middle East caused a spike in commodity prices that quickly fed into higher global inflation. A recent moderation in commodity prices has caused some subsequent easing in consumer price inflation in many economies. These dynamics are well captured by high-frequency daily price indicators using web-scraping software.

By Patrice Ollivaud and Ben Westmore, OECD Economics Department