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.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)