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Consumption despite Corona: Germans want to go shopping again
Photo: Swen Pförtner / dpa
Consumer sentiment in Germany is recovering.
This is shown by the latest study by the Nuremberg market research institute GfK.
The buying mood among Germans had fallen sharply after the hard lockdown in mid-December, but the development in February seems to be optimistic: The fact that the number of infections fell last month and more and more people are being vaccinated gives many »hopes that the measures will be relaxed soon «, Says GfK consumer expert Rolf Bürkl.
Germans expect more income
The Germans want to buy more: The “propensity to buy” rose in February, if only slightly.
One of the reasons for this is that German citizens are hoping for more income: With less short-time working and a possible end to the lockdown, many expect wages to rise again, the GfK analyzes in the consumption study.
In the last four months before that, the majority of respondents had assumed that their income would fall.
The Germans are also optimistic about the economy: the indicator is even above that of the previous year - a time when it was not yet possible to foresee how severe the pandemic would be.
The expert Bürkl sees the reason for the fact that large parts of the economy are currently not affected by the closings: The manufacturing industry, for example, continues to run almost without restriction.
Little confidence without loosening up
Nevertheless, Bürkl warns against too much optimism: "A sustained recovery in the propensity to buy and thus also in the consumer climate will only occur when the hard lockdown is ended and shops, hotels and restaurants reopen," said the expert.
If the measures were instead extended further, the chance of a quick recovery would diminish.
Then the consumer climate would "continue to face difficult times."
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jlk / dpa / AFP