Downward trend in consumer sentiment halted for the time being
After three consecutive declines, consumer sentiment brightened slightly at the end of the year, but remains at a low level. According to the market research company GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), the consumer climate is expected to reach minus 27.8 points in December. This is 0.5 points more than in November, when the consumer climate reached a revised minus 28.3 points.
"The mood is still characterized by uncertainty and worries," explained NIM consumer expert Rolf Bürkl. This uncertainty is particularly evident in the propensity to save, as recently revealed by an in-depth analysis carried out by the NIM.
Consumers were asked specifically why they currently consider saving to be advisable. In the open survey, just under a third of respondents stated that they were very unsettled by the current political and economic situation and therefore thought it made sense to keep their money together.
In addition to the current conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine or the conflict in the Middle East, high inflation in Germany plays a particularly important role in the tendency to save, GfK and NIM explained. This concern was mentioned by more than a third of respondents.
"This empirically confirms that the propensity to save serves less as an indicator of conscious investment, but can primarily be interpreted as an indication of the extent of consumer uncertainty," explained Bürkl. "Conversely, however, this also means that a sustainable recovery in the consumer climate requires inflation to be brought back to a reasonable level and that solutions must be found to the international trouble spots."
Despite the slight improvement in consumer sentiment, the downward trend continues to be a concern, with the consumer climate predicted to remain low at -27.8 points in December. This uncertainty in the consumer climate is primarily driven by factors such as the unsettling political and economic situation and high inflation, leading to a strong propensity to save among consumers.
Source: www.ntv.de
