BERLIN, April 30 (Xinhua) -- After two consecutive declines, the German consumer climate stabilized at 10.4 points in April "despite the weak economy," according to a study published by Germany's largest market research institute GfK on Tuesday.
The GfK study found that the German propensity to buy was benefitting from an "optimistic income mood" among consumers in April primarily due to relatively stable situation on the labor market.
"If employees assume that their jobs are secure, this provides planning security, especially for larger purchases," GfK consumer expert Rolf Buerkl told Xinhua on Tuesday. Germans would be willing to spend more or even incur debts.
At the same time, while income expectations among Germans were rising, economic expectations continued to fall.
"What is very striking at the moment is that the gap between the wider economic outlook and income expectations is widening. And that is unusual," Buerkl said.
Uncertainty among consumers about Germany's economic development was set to continue in April after a brief interruption in March.
The downward trend in German consumer economic prospects has lasted for over a year and the GfK consumer sentiment indicator had lost more than 31 points since last April.
Buerkl said income expectations are strongly influenced by the international environment.
Based on recent assessments by Germany's major economic research institutes, the German government lowered its economic growth expectations for 2019 to 0.5 percent, down from the 1.8 percent the government had predicted last fall.
Despite this economic headwind, however, the GfK was still expecting private consumer spending to rise by around 1.5 percent this year.
The prerequisite for this increase would be that "uncertainty among the German workforce" caused by international political developments, would not increase any further, the GfK noted.
The GfK is predicting an unchanged consumer climate index of 10.4 points for May.
