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Empty shopping street in Essen: Consumers expect lower incomes
Photo:
Jochen Tack / imago images / Jochen Tack
Retail and gastronomy are dense, mostly only the detour via the internet remains.
This has consequences: consumer sentiment in the corona shutdown continued to deteriorate significantly towards the end of the year.
For January, the market research institute GfK forecast a value of minus 7.3 points - that is another 0.5 points less than in December.
The consumer climate is thus more gloomy than it has been for half a year.
Economists had, however, expected an even greater decrease to minus 8.8 points, the barometer is based on a survey of 2000 participants.
"With the hard lockdown and the closing of most stores, the consumer climate has to cope with another setback," said GfK expert Rolf Bürkl.
Economic expectations and the willingness to make larger purchases have increased, but consumers are expecting income to be cut.
The propensity to save increased noticeably in December, as the researchers explained.
Fear of unemployment is growing again
Consumers are still unsettled in view of the situation and the tougher measures to be expected and this explains the inconsistent development, explained the GfK.
The closure of many retail stores is likely to result in noticeably more short-time working in the coming weeks.
"This leads to a loss of income for the employees concerned," it said.
In addition, it is to be feared that even more companies could be at risk of bankruptcy.
"This increases the fear of job loss and has a negative impact on income prospects."
In the coming weeks, the consumer climate will "enter a very difficult phase," the researchers forecast.
Only when the corona infection numbers have dropped so noticeably that the tough restrictions can be relaxed again can relaxation be expected.
Gastronomy, leisure and cultural facilities as well as most shops will be closed until at least January 10th.
With the prospect of the early use of a vaccine against corona in Germany, there is hope that private consumption could receive fresh impetus.
However, it will probably take months before a large part of the population is effectively protected from the virus.
According to GfK, however, the economic sentiment has risen by 4.6 points after two declines in a row - and climbed to 4.4 points.
However, possible effects from the recent shutdown are not yet taken into account.
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