GfK’s latest consumer index forecast, the main measure of consumer sentiment in the biggest European economy, edged up to 4.6 points from 4.5 in each of the previous two months.
The results indicated the first ray of hope in German consumer confidence, said the institute, which surveyed around 2,000 people across the country from its headquarters in Nuremberg.
High inflation, a weak dollar, and financial turmoil that threatens the US economy with recession were balanced here by an unemployment rate that continues to fall, along with significant wage increases, GfK said. But “it would certainly be too soon to speak of a trend reversal,” the
institute cautioned.
What it called a “tentative recovery” would have trouble achieving a prior consumption forecast of 1.5 percent “in the face of continued high rates of inflation,” GfK said.
The institute therefore revised its consumption growth forecast down to 1.0 percent for this year.