European consumers’ inclination to buy goods and services has been significantly dampened in the first two months of 2002, after the introduction of the Euro was used by many retail and service companies as justification for a hike in prices. This is one of the key findings of a study by GfK, carried out on behalf of the European Commission.
“In Germany alone, the ‘buying propensity’ index for January this year dropped 28 points, a change of the order of magnitude for one month which GfK has not measured in over ten years, since monthly surveys began. Indeed, the downward movements of the index based on around 15 measurements in France, Italy and Spain were also unusually sharp,” reads the report.
Old currency favoured The research found that consumer spend in the first two months of the year has been particularly low and that many consumers made a raft of purchases in the latter part of 2001, whilst the old currencies were still in use across Europe.
This trend to resist purchasing continued throughout February in Germany, Italy and France, according to GfK. However, this is expected to be only a short-term phenomenon.
UK and Denmark remain relaxed In the UK and Denmark – both absent from the European currency union – the propensity to purchase index has remained much more stable. In the UK it dropped just three points in January, representing only a gentle downward trend, and in Denmark actually rose during that month.
