German Consumer Sentiment Set To Remain Stable In August

Germany’s consumer confidence is set to remain unchanged in August as the weakness in economic and income expectations were offset by the improvement in the propensity to buy, survey results from the market research group GfK showed on Wednesday.

The forward-looking consumer sentiment held steady at -0.3 in August. Economists had forecast the index to improve to +1.0.

Rolf Bürkl, GfK consumer expert said the phase of falling incidences has come to an end and the number of infections is rising again.

In addition, the dynamism of vaccination has lately decreased significantly despite the availability of sufficient vaccines, Bürkl added. This is currently preventing a further significant rise in consumer sentiment.

Among components of consumer confidence, both economic and income expectations recorded moderate losses in July after strong increase in June, while the propensity to buy increased again slightly.

The economic expectations index dropped 3.8 points to 54.6 in July from a 10-year high. Consumers expect the German economy to continue growing. Private consumption will increasingly contribute to the positive development, GfK noted.

The income expectations indicator fell 5.1 points to 29 in July. Rising consumer price inflation weighed on income outlook of consumers.

In contrast to economic and income expectations, the propensity to buy increased slightly by 1.4 points to 14.8 in July.

The survey was conducted between July 1 and 12. The results are an excerpt from the study “GfK Consumer Climate MAXX” and are based on around 2,000 consumer interviews carried out on behalf of the EU Commission.

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