German consumer morale falls to a record low and warn of further economic slowdown

The data from German Gfk institute showed that consumer morale is projected to fall to a record low in May, as negative impact from the war in Ukraine caused surge in cost of living and threatening of fresh economic slowdown, as the economy is still fragile and not fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

Consumer morale fell to historical low at -26.5 in May, below previous record low at -23.1, hit during the pandemic in 2020, following April’s -15.7 fall and strongly beat expectations for a drop to -16.

War in Ukraine sparked strong rise in commodities, with energy prices exploding on signals that the EU, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy, will ban imports of natural gas, oil and coal from Russia, in addition to existing large set of sanctions.

Sharp rise in the cost of living was also boosted by soaring inflation and caused a severe blow to consumer sentiment, prompting German government to revise the economic outlook and cut the growth forecast for the EU’s largest economy in 2022 from initial estimation of 3.6% to 2.2%.

The outlook for 2023 was a bit more optimistic on expectations for 2.5% growth, although concerns about energy shortages, as Russia already cut supplies to some EU member states, could further dampen the outlook.