German GfK Consumer Sentiment To Deteriorate Sharply

(RTTNews) - German consumer confidence is set to deteriorate sharply at the end of the year as income expectations plunged to a nine-month low on growing fears of recession, a closely watched survey showed Wednesday.

The consumer sentiment index slid to -23.3 in December from revised -18.4 in November, survey results jointly published by GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions revealed today.

The consumer sentiment index measured for December hit the lowest since May of this year. Sentiment is currently at a level comparable to the end of 2023. NIM consumer expert Rolf Bürkl said consumer uncertainty increased again recently as evidenced by the rising willingness to save. Another uncertainty factor is concerns about job security. Job cuts reported by industry and the relocation of production abroad were cited as major reasons for uncertainty.

Income expectations fell notably and the willingness to buy declined slightly. Consumers were more pessimistic about the development of the general economic situation for the fourth consecutive month.

Rising insolvencies and reports of impending job losses dampened economic expectations. The economic expectations index fell to -3.6 in November after a drop of 3.8 points. This was the fourth straight month of decline.

At -3.5 points, the income expectations index lost 17.2 points in November. A worse value was last measures nine months ago.

The willingness to buy showed a slight loss and it remained at an extremely low level. The corresponding index dropped 1.3 points to -6.