After a brief improvement at the turn of the year, consumer sentiment in Germany has deteriorated significantly again. According to a current survey by the consumer research institute GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), the consumer climate in the forecast for February fell by 4.3 points to a value of minus 29.7 points. This is the worst value since March 2023. Before the corona pandemic, the consumer climate was comparatively stable at around ten points.
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The Nuremberg researchers said that the sharp decline was also due to the fact that the propensity to save increased significantly at the beginning of the year. “The improvement in the previous month was apparently just a brief flare-up before Christmas,” said NIM consumer expert Rolf Bürkl. “If there were any hopes that sentiment could sustainably recover, they were dashed in January.” Crises and wars as well as persistently high inflation unsettled consumers and prevented consumer sentiment from improving.
People postpone investments because of inflation
Above all, inflation, which has recently risen slightly again, is causing income expectations to fall and people to postpone larger purchases. “Concerns about continued high prices for food and energy reduce planning security, which is particularly necessary for larger purchases,” said the market researchers. “If more money has to be spent on everyday goods, many people lack the financial resources for other purchases, such as furnishings or electronic devices.” The return to a VAT rate of 19 percent in the catering industry and the CO₂ tax could further strengthen this development. The economic outlook is now also becoming more pessimistic again.
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Last year, the German economy slipped into recession, with gross domestic product falling by 0.3 percent in 2023. Economists are only expecting slight growth this year. The Ifo Institute surprisingly lowered its growth forecast for 2024 this week by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7 percent.
For the study on the consumer climate in Germany on behalf of the EU Commission, 2,000 people in Germany are surveyed every month. The survey period for the current survey was between January 4th and 15th.
After a brief improvement at the turn of the year, consumer sentiment in Germany has deteriorated significantly again. According to a current survey by the consumer research institute GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), the consumer climate in the forecast for February fell by 4.3 points to a value of minus 29.7 points. This is the worst value since March 2023. Before the corona pandemic, the consumer climate was comparatively stable at around ten points.
The Nuremberg researchers said that the sharp decline was also due to the fact that the propensity to save increased significantly at the beginning of the year. “The improvement in the previous month was apparently just a brief flare-up before Christmas,” said NIM consumer expert Rolf Bürkl. “If there were any hopes that sentiment could sustainably recover, they were dashed in January.” Crises and wars as well as persistently high inflation unsettled consumers and prevented consumer sentiment from improving.
2024-01-26 08:51:11
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