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Despite the rising recession fears, confidence among German consumers strengthened for the sixth consecutive month on improving income expectations, a closely-watched survey by the market research group GfK revealed Wednesday. The consumer confidence index for April climbed to -29.5 from -30.6 in March, the Nuremberg-based GfK said. The reading for March was slightly revised from -30.5. Within three sub-components of consumer confidence, income expectations strengthened in March and the propensity to buy hardly changed. By contrast, the economic expectations suffered a setback after four straight months of increase. At -24.3, the income expectations index gained three points to hit a 10-month high in March. Nonetheless, the level of income expectations remained very low. Despite the strong improvement in income prospects, the propensity to buy gained only 0.3 points to -17.0 in March. The stagnating development in the propensity to buy signals uncertainty among consumers, Gfk said. After four consecutive increases, the economic expectations index dropped 2.3 points to 3.7 in March. Economic confidence remained above its long-term average of around zero. The German economy is widely expected to undergo a recession. Gross domestic product is likely to drop slightly in the first quarter after a 0.4 percent fall a quarter ago, GfK said. Powered by Commodity Insights
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