German Consumer Confidence To Worsen In February

Germany's consumer confidence is set to fall in February as persistently high inflation damped income expectations and the propensity to buy amid falling economic expectations.

The forward-looking consumer sentiment index unexpectedly fell to -29.7 in February from revised -25.4 in January, the survey published jointly by GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions showed Friday.

The indicator hit the weakest level since March 2023, while economists forecast the score to rise to -24.5.

The improvement in confidence seen in the previous month was apparently just a brief flare-up before Christmas, Rolf Burkl, a consumer expert at NIM said. But hopes of the recovery were dashed in January.

The propensity to save advanced 6.7 points to 14 in January, which was the highest value since August 2008.

Income prospects of consumers continued its downward trend on higher inflation. The return of the regular Value Added Tax rate of 19 percent in the catering industry as well as the rise in the CO2 tax for energy will further weaken expectations, the survey showed.

The income expectations indicator declined by 13.1 points to -20 in January, the lowest since March 2023.

Weak income expectations again lowered consumers' propensity to buy. The propensity to buy index dropped to -14.8 from -8.8.

Economic outlook for the coming year were also assessed more pessimistically. At -6.6, the index lost 6.2 points. A lower value was last reported in December 2022.