Private consumption in Germany has put a false start into the new year. Both the economic and income expectations and the inclination tendency had to be lost in January, as can be seen from the consumer climate study of the Nuremberg Institute GfK and NIM published on Wednesday. The tendency to save will be a bit larger at the same time.
For February 2025, consumer researchers predict a decline in the consumer climate by 1.0 points to minus 22.4 points. Before the Corona pandemic, the consumer climate, which had been raised monthly since the 1980s, was comparatively stable for values by plus 10 points.
“The consumer climate suffers a setback again and starts cloudy into the new year,” said Nim consumption expert Rolf Bürkl. The quiet hopes of careful relaxation were thus destroyed.
At best, stagnating development has been recognized since the middle of last year. In the first half of 2024, on the other hand, the signs had still been on relaxation. “Sustainable recovery of the consumer climate is currently not in sight, especially since the inflation rate has recently attracted a bit,” Bürkl commented on the result of the survey.
The households estimated their own income situation more negative than in the first half of 2024, also due to increasing fears to maintain jobs, the consumer researchers found. This is also the case of the purchase tendency. The lowest value since August last year has been achieved in the pull of the weak income prospects.
The results are an extract from the study created on behalf of the EU Commission. They are based on around 2,000 consumer interviews per month.