Germany: Consumer sentiment expected to fall in September
The GfK consumer climate index is forecast to fall to minus 25.5 in September from minus 24.6 in August, marking the second fall in ten months.
The expected downtick in sentiment follows the revision of backward-looking data for August, which is released simultaneously and underpins the September expectation.
Looking at the August data, for the year ahead, consumers became more pessimistic about the state of the economy, their personal finances and their spending intentions. This may be linked with recent stickiness in inflation, which remains more than three times above the ECB’s 2.0% target. Weak consumer sentiment is likely to weigh on spending in Q3.
GfK’s Rolf Bürkl commented:
“The chances that consumer sentiment can recover sustainably this year are dwindling more and more. Persistently high inflation rates, especially for food and energy, mean that the consumer climate is currently not making any progress.”