German consumer climate predicted to stabilize in Feb.

The German consumer climate will remain stable at a high level with the overall indicator at 9.4 points for February, following a value of 9.4 points in January, market research group GfK reported Wednesday.

According to GfK, income expectations have suffered losses, while both economic expectations and willingness to buy have risen by a small amount.

"The heightened terror threat and the increasingly intense debate on how to solve the refugee crisis have still not had a lasting effect on consumer sentiment, which is currently showing no clear trend and has altered very little in comparison with the previous month," said Rolf Buerkl, an analyst for the Nuremberg-based research group.

However, the report also noted that in the next few months the escalating terror threat and the rising fears among certain groups of the population that Germany could eventually become overstretched by the persistently high influx of refugees and asylum seekers may cause consumer confidence to wane in the long term, which would in turn have a lasting impact on the consumer climate.

The GfK consumer climate survey has been conducted since 1980. Its findings are based on around 2,000 consumer interviews conducted each month on behalf of the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union. Endit