German Confidence Falters

German consumer activity has begun to be undermined by gas prices. That is the conclusion of Germany’s premier economic survey firm GfK Group. The firm published its comments in the “Consumer Climate study for Germany for March 2012.” At the core of the conclusions about effects of current economic conditions on near term behavior, GfK reported this

Following a value of 6.0 points in March, the overall indicator is forecasting 5.9 points for April 2012. The upward trend of the consumer climate over the last six months has therefore ceased, for now at least.

Germans believe that their purchasing power has been undermined by energy costs. But, up until now Germany’s economy has continued to expand, and business confidence has remained relatively good based on recent data from the German Ifo business-climate index. That means that the only nations of any size in the EU with growing economies are Germany and France. The importance of the trend cannot be overstated since these are the two largest nations in the region based on GDP. Now, the growth of GDPs in Germany and France are threatened for the same reason as in the US. Oil and gas prices have started to become overwhelming.