Income expectations and propensity to buy have once more exceeded their already high level. Conversely, general prospects of economic growth were assessed less optimistically for the fourth time in a row. For February, GfK is predicting a consumer climate value of 10.8 points, following January's revised figure of 10.5 points. Based on the good start to the year, GfK is predicting an increase in private consumption in Germany of 1.5 percent for 2019.

The gap between the economic outlook and income expectations continues to grow at the start of the year. In addition, propensity to buy has also managed to fully compensate for the losses of the previous month in the wake of rising income expectations. Since propensity to save is also falling in January, the consumer climate has managed to gain 0.3 points.