BERLIN, Sept 27 Reuters Sentiment among German consumers is set to fall in October, as persistently high inflation encourages people to save and blots out the chances of a recovery before the end of the year, a GfK institute survey found on Wednesday.

The institute39;s consumer sentiment index fell to 26.5 heading into October from a slightly revised 25.6 in September, below expectations of analysts polled by Reuters of 26.0.

The slight decrease for a second month in a row was due primarily to a jump in consumers39; propensity to save, which hit 8.0 points in September its highest since April 2011 after a reading of only 0.5 a month earlier, according to GfK.

This means that the chances of a recovery in consumer sentiment are likely to have fallen to zero before the end of the year, said Rolf Buerkl, GfK39;s consumer expert.

Thus, private consumption will not make a positive contribution to overall economic development this year.

Domestic demand will improve only when the inflation rate is brought back to a tolerable level, said GfK, adding that it was not yet possible to predict when that goal will be reached.

OCT 2023

SEP 2023

OCT 2022

Consumer climate

26.5

25.6

42.8

Consumer climate components

SEP 2023

AUG 2023

SEP 2022

willingness to buy

16.4

17.0

19.5…