German consumer climate for November weakens over fears of second lockdown
Source: Xinhua | 2020-10-23
The German consumer climate for November weakened over fears of a second COVID-19 lockdown in the country, according to a monthly consumer climate study published on Thursday by the Nuremberg-based market research institute GfK.
The forward-looking consumer-sentiment index was expected to fall to minus 3.1 points in November, from a revised minus 1.7 points in October, as "optimism of German consumers is fading noticeably," according to GfK.
The study indicated that around three quarters (74 percent) of consumers see COVID-19 as a major or very major threat, and about half (51 percent) are concerned or very concerned about their own future as a result.
"The significant recovery we saw in consumer sentiment at the start of the summer has come to a standstill and is causing the consumer climate to plummet once more," said Rolf Buerkl, GfK consumer expert, in a statement.
After rising for five months in a row, the economic expectations of German consumers were the "biggest loser" among the individual indicators. GfK noted that consumers feared that the increasing number of COVID-19 infections in Germany would slow down the rapid recovery of the German economy that "had been hoped for."
On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported a new record of 11,287 COVID-19 infections within one day.
Germany has registered more than 50 coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants over a one-week period, meaning that for the first time the country has breached its own critical limit for tackling the pandemic, the German news agency dpa reported.
The so-called seven-day incidence rate, which is used by authorities to decide when to tighten restrictions, had ticked up to 51.1 for the whole country, according to RKI data released on Wednesday.
The development of German consumer climate and the question of whether the index could stabilize again in the coming months would "depend above all on how infection rates progress," Gfk noted.
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