German consumer gloom deepens - GfK survey

Germany’s economic gloom deepened on Friday as a widely-watched survey showed an unexpected fall in consumer confidence as inflation deterred people from major purchases.

The consumer sentiment index dropped to -29.7 in February, from a downwardly-revised -25.4 in January and well below the consensus -24.5, said the GfK institute and Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM).

"If there were any hopes of a sustained recovery in sentiment, these were dashed in January," said Rolf Buerkl, consumer expert at the NIM. "The consumer climate suffered a severe setback at the beginning of the year."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com