In this paper, an economic model predictive control algorithm is proposed which ensures satisfaction of transient average constraints, i.e., constraints on input and state variables averaged over some finite time period. We believe that this stricter form of average constraints (compared to previously proposed asymptotic average constraints) is of independent interest in various applications such as the operation of a chemical reactor, where e.g. the amount of inflow or the heat flux during some fixed period of time must not exceed a certain value. Besides guaranteeing fulfillment of transient average constraints for the closed-loop system, we show that closed-loop average performance bounds and convergence results established in the setting of asymptotic average constraints also hold in case of transient average constraints. Furthermore, we illustrate our results with a chemical reactor example. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.