Despite the worst economic crisis since 1945, German consumers are ever more confident in the future and increasingly willing to part with their hard-earned cash, a closely watched survey showed yesterday.
The GfK research group said its forward-looking consumer confidence index for next month rose to 3.5 points from a revised 3 points this month.
A sub-index measuring consumers’ willingness to buy rose dramatically to 25.1 points from 14.5 points last month and from minus 26.2 in August last year.
The institute said low inflation had made consumers more eager to rush out and make purchases, as well as a relatively stable labor market, despite the crisis.
Unemployment figures would play a key role in the future development of consumer sentiment, GfK said in a statement.
“A long-lasting stabilization of the consumer climate will depend on how the labor market develops in the future. If the unemployment figures climb high in late autumn, this will be a test for consumer confidence,” GfK said.
The survey is the latest to suggest that Europe’s top economy could be rebounding from its worst slowdown in recent history.
A study by Ernst and Young that came out in Die Welt daily yesterday showed that two out of three firms in Germany believed the economy would improve by next year, rising to nearly eight in 10 companies seeing a brighter future by 2011.
Moreover, 54 percent of the businesses polled said that Germany was likely to emerge stronger after the crisis than it was before.
On Friday, a closely watched survey by the Ifo institute, measuring the mood among German firms, rose for the fourth month running this month.
Nevertheless, the government still sees Germany — one of the world’s top exporters — shrinking by a record 6 percent this year.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS