German Consumer Sentiment Set To Fall
(RTTNews) - Consumer confidence in Germany is set to fall in March as rising prices and economic and political uncertainty pushed up households' willingness to save, while their economic expectations turned pessimistic, survey data published jointly by NIQ/GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions showed Wednesday.
The forward-looking consumer sentiment index dropped to -24.7 from -24.2 in February. The reading was weaker than economists' forecast of -23.0.
Income expectations improved for the second consecutive month in February. The corresponding index posted 6.3, up from 5.1 in the previous month.
The willingness to buy dropped to -9.3 points from -4.0 in January. Meanwhile, the willingness to save hit a new high in February since the financial and economic crisis of 2008. The index rose to 18.9 from 17.9 in the previous month.
Consumers cited high or rising prices as well as economic and political uncertainty as reason for the high willingness to save.
Economic expectations among consumers weakened slightly in February. The economic expectations index dropped to 4.3 from 6.6. Despite the decrease, consumers remain cautiously optimistic about the future. "With this slight decrease to -24.7 points, the Consumer Climate cannot continue its upturn seen last month," NIM Head of Consumer Climate Rolf Burkl said. "The mood therefore remains largely unchanged," Burkl added.
"Even though the economy appears to be recovering slightly, consumers remain skeptical," he said. Geopolitical tensions and challenges in social policy, are likely to keep uncertainty and thus also the willingness to save high, added Burkl.
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