GERMANY
<strong>Buying sentiment worsens</strong>
Consumer sentiment worsened for the second month running, a key survey said yesterday, as Europe’s largest economy braces itself for rising inflation and the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Pollster GfK’s forward-looking barometer fell to minus-6.8 from a revised figure of minus-1.8 for this month. “The high incidence of the virus due to the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic with further restrictions and higher prices are increasingly weighing on the consumer climate,” GfK consumer expert Rolf Buerkl said. New rules barring unvaccinated people from some shops had dealt retailers “a hard blow,” Buerkl said. On
Issues related to the economy, private investment, as well as the energy and digital transition, human resource skills and industrial policy were discussed