Given rising prices As a result of the Iran war and concerns about a weak economy, purchasing sentiment in Germany continues to decline. According to the current study by the NIM and GfK institutes, this is decreasing Consumer climate for May by 5.2 to minus 33.3 points, reaching its lowest level since February 2023.
NIM market researchers said consumers were much more skeptical about their future financial situation and general economic developments. Graduate economist Rolf Bürkl said: “Income expectations are literally collapsing as a result of increased inflation.” Accordingly, this sub-barometer also fell to its lowest value since February 2023. “And against this background, people currently consider the time for larger purchases to be less favorable,” said Bürkl.
The willingness Spending money on larger purchasesdecreased for the third time in a row and reached its lowest level in two years. At the same time, consumers’ willingness to save has declined slightly.
The business climate has also fallen recently
For the monthly consumer climate study, 2,000 people are surveyed on behalf of the EU Commission. The survey period for the most recent study was between April 2nd and 13th.
Similar to the consumer climate, the mood in German companies is also subdued. The ifo business climate fell by 1.9 points to 84.4 points in April, as the Munich ifo Institute announced after its survey of around 9,000 managers. The index has thus reached its lowest level since May 2020 – at that time the economy was still suffering from the consequences of the corona pandemic.