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»Black Week« advertising: Frosty consumer climate
Photo: IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber
After the consumer climate crash, data from the Nuremberg market researcher GfK shows a slight improvement.
Consumer sentiment is still very bad.
But the consumer climate index rose from minus 41.9 points in November to minus 40.2 points in December, Gfk said on Friday.
The propensity to buy has decreased somewhat, but the economic expectations and the income expectations of consumers have improved slightly.
“Consumers' long-standing fears of exploding energy prices have eased somewhat,” said GfK consumer expert Rolf Bürkl.
However, as long as there are doubts about a problem-free energy supply and inflation remains high, the consumer climate will not recover noticeably and sustainably.
Gfk surveyed around 2000 consumers between November 3rd and 14th.
After the record low in September, income expectations rose for the second time and rose by a good 6 points to -54.3 points in November.
Energy prices have fallen in recent weeks.
A stable employment situation and tariff increases in the metal industry strengthened the hope of many consumers that the real income losses would not be quite as severe, the consumer researchers emphasized.
Consumer economic expectations improved by around 4 points to -17.9 points.
In contrast, there was a small setback in the propensity to buy.
It fell by one point to -18.6 points.
In the next few months, many households will be faced with sharply increased energy bills, for which they would already have to put money aside.
"These funds are not available for other acquisitions and purchases," explained the Nuremberg consumer researchers.
The GfK consumer climate refers to total private consumer spending.
Retail accounts for about 30 percent of that.
»The rest are services, travel, rental, health services and the entire wellness area.«
mike/dpa
