By Emese Bartha

FRANKFURT--German consumer sentiment is set to weaken in July, for the second month in a row, reflecting a significant drop in income expectations, market research group GfK said in its monthly survey on Wednesday.

GfK's forward-looking consumer sentiment index is set to fall to 9.8 points in July from 10.1 points in June, it said. Economists in The Wall Street Journal's survey forecast a print of 10.0 points.

"A key factor behind this [drop] is the noticeable decrease in the income indicator this month," GfK said. While this indicator has so far benefited from the strength of the job market, "now the voices heralding the end of the employment boom are growing," it added.

Germany's unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in May, in a sign that a recent slowdown in growth is spreading further through Europe's largest economy.

GfK uses three sub-indexes--economic expectations, income expectations and propensity to buy--for the current month to derive a sentiment figure for the next month.

Income expectations fell to 45.5 points in June, the lowest level since March 2017, from 57.7 points in May, GfK said.

The downward spiral in economic expectations that began at the start of 2018 halted in June, at least for now, GfK said, adding that this sub-index rose to 2.4 points in June from 1.7 points in May.

The propensity to buy rose to 53.7 points from 50.5 points.

Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 26, 2019 02:14 ET (06:14 GMT)