consumer confidence in germany is set for a small rise in june although remaining depressed after falling to a historic low in the previous month as inflation and russias war in ukraine weigh heavily on households sentiment market research group gfks forwardlooking consumer sentiment index forecasts confidence rising to minus 260 in june from minus 266 in may this figure is in line with the forecast of economists polled by the wall street journal although this means that the consumer climate has improved slightly consumer sentiment is still at an alltime low gfks consumer expert rolf buerkl said gfk uses data from three subindexes from the current month to derive a sentiment figure for the coming month measuring consumers economic expectations income expectations and propensity to buy both economic and income expectations show moderate gains while the propensity to buy remains virtually unchanged according to the survey after two months of noticeable losses economic expectations picked up again slightly in may rising to minus 93 from minus 164 in the previous month although economic expectations didnt slump further in may consumers still fear a recession gfk said supply chain issues and a lack of semiconductors are currently preventing a sustained recovery in large parts of the german economy the report said after income expectations plummeted to their lowest level in almost 20 years in the previous month they are currently recovering somewhat this subindex rose to minus 237 from minus 313 in april in addition to uncertainty caused by the war in ukraine the main reason for weak income expectations is high inflation as a result of weak economic and income expectations consumer spending also remains noticeably subdued the propensity to buy subindex remained virtually unchanged at minus 111 in may slightly down from minus 106 in april mr buerkl said a sustained turnaround in consumer sentiment continues to depend on successful negotiations to end the conflict in ukraine and a decline in inflation