According to the part of the survey dedicated to Germany, to which Reuters had access on Friday, 61% of German citizens are very or extremely concerned about rising prices for energy, food, gasoline and housing. Only 2% of the respondents said they were not concerned, and 37% were slightly or somewhat concerned. German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, rose by 9.2% on the year in January, preliminary data from the federal statistics office showed.
Out of those surveyed, 53% say that rising prices for everyday goods lead to financial difficulties.
The Global Consumer Trends Report showed that 39% of German citizens consider their financial situation worse than a year ago, while 41% said nothing had changed and only one in five said their financial situation had improved. However, Germans were not very concerned about the labour market: The survey showed that a quarter of respondents were not worried at all about losing their job. This is in high contrast with the situation in other European countries - only 3% of those surveyed in Spain and 5% of the Italians had no worries about becoming unemployed.
The results of the survey reflect the resilience of the
German labour market. Germany's unemployment rate remained
stable at 5.5% in January.
The study is based on responses from 11,000 consumers from
the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Spain, China, Japan and Australia, who were
surveyed between Jan. 5 and Jan. 10.
(Reporting by Reinhard Becker and Maria Martinez
Editing by Miranda Murray)
