The 2008 Fall Wave of the OeNB Euro Survey – A First Glimpse of Households’ Reactions to the Global Financial Crisis

This article presents selected results of the third wave of the OeNB Euro Survey, which was conducted in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) in October/November 2008, i.e. at a time when the global financial crisis had arrived in Europe. Therefore, this article focuses on first evidence of households’ reactions to the crisis by comparing the most recent results with those of the preceding survey wave of May/June 2008. Although people’s general assessment of the economic situation and their trust in banks have both deteriorated substantially, according to our results, this has not (yet) changed people’s behavioral patterns in terms of their foreign currency holdings. In particular, the dissemination of euro cash holdings and euro-denominated savings deposits remained stable relative to earlier waves of the OeNB uro Survey.