FRANKFURT--German consumer sentiment is set to improve into the year-end, reversing the declines of the previous months, market research group GfK said Thursday, and it confirmed its forecast for a 2% increase of real private consumer spending this year.
GfK's forward-looking sentiment index is expected to edge up to 9.8 points in December from 9.7 points in November, the market research group said. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 9.7 points reading for December.
GfK uses three sub-indexes that refer to the current month to derive a sentiment figure for the coming month. Consumers' economic expectations and propensity to buy increased in November from October, while income expectations declined marginally.
Economic expectations rose for the second time in a row, to 15.3 points in November from 13.0 points in October. The propensity to buy, which reflects consumers' readiness to spend on big ticket items, increased to 51.2 points in November from 49.9 points in October, on "improving economic prospects and the stabilization of income expectations," GfK said.
Income expectations slipped back to 44.5 points from 44.8 points, but, "nevertheless, consumers are still in a buoyant mood, as proven by the level of the indicator," GfK said. It added that in particular, a stable employment situation will ensure that incomes will also increase next year.
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