German Consumer Confidence Rises In September, But Remains At A Very Low Level

Source: http://germaneconomy.blogspot.com/2008/09/german-consumer-confidence-rises-in.html
Posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 | In Economics, Germany

Contributed by: Edward Hugh (http://globaleconomydoesmatter.blogspot.com) -

German consumer confidence rose in September for the first time in five months after falling fuel prices left consumers with more to spend on items like food and clothing. The GfK forward looking consumer climate index for October increased to 1.8 from a revised 1.6. As can be seen in the chart, last months reading was very low, in fact it was the lowest level in five years.

The price of oil has fallen by almost a third from its record in July. Still, at more than $100 a barrel the cost remains 30 percent higher than a year ago and erodes spending power. At the same time, a deepening crisis on global financial markets may dim consumers’ willingness to spend in coming months.

As for the sub components, after two months of marked losses, the economic outlook component was a little more positive in September. The indicator was up 6 points to -15.7. However, the value still remains around 56 points below that recorded in September 2007.

Income expectations were up for the second consecutive month, and the indicator was up by 2.7 points in September. It still remains at a very low level however, as documented by the value of 16.4 points below that September 2007.

The consumer propensity to buy was up quite. The indicator climbed by 15.1 points to reach -12.8 points. The propensity to consume, however, remained moderate, since it is still more than 10 points behind that recorded in the same period in the prior year.

Last 5 posts by Edward Hugh

Global Manufacturing, France Outperforms, As Spain Continues To Flounder - November 3rd, 2009
A New Spectre Is Haunting Europe, A Spanish One - October 31st, 2009
Beyond The Consensus On European Bank Credit - October 27th, 2009
The French Rebound Continues In October While Germany Moves Sideways - October 27th, 2009
The French Rebound Continues In October While Germany Moves Sideways - October 27th, 2009

Tags for this Post:
Economics, food, Germany, Oil, USD

About Edward Hugh (http://globaleconomydoesmatter.blogspot.com)
Edward Hugh is a macro economist, who specializes in growth and productivity theory, demographic processes and their impact on macro performance, and the underlying dynamics of migration flows.

Hugh is a founding member and regular contributor to a number of economics weblogs, including Global Economy Matters, Demography Matters and a number of others.

Edward 'the bonobo' Hugh is a Catalan economist of British extraction based in Barcelona. By inclination he is a macro economist, but his obsession with trying to understand the economic impact of demographic changes has often taken him far from home, off and away from the more tranquil and placid pastures of the dismal science, into the bracken and thicket of demography, anthropology, biology, sociology and systems theory. All of which has lead him to ask himself whether Thomas Wolfe was not in fact right when he asserted that the fact of the matter is "you can never go home again". He is currently working on a book with the provisional working title "Population, the Ultimate Non-renewable Resource".

Edward also writes regularly for the demography blog Demography Matters. He also contributes to the Indian Economy blog . His personal weblog is Bonobo Land . Edward's website can be found at EdwardHugh.net.

Edward follows in detail the Indian, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese economies. He also has a more than a passing interest in the economies of Turkey and Brazil and in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe.