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.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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