Price hikes for energy force Germans to save. 73% of Germans interviewed by the Forsa polling firm said that they wanted to save on energy in 2008 whereas in 2007 this percentage was just 69%. Back in 2006 it was even as low as 56%.
Those areas on which Germans want to save most are energy (73%), telephone costs (52%) and going to restaurants (50%). Less money is also to be spent on groceries (42%), travel and holidays (38%), insurances (38%) and accommodation (25%). Only 11%, however, are willing to reduce their spending on retirement provisions.
Despite this enhanced propensity to save with regard to energy, the general saving index has fallen the third year in a row. Only 61% of Germans want to save as much or more money in 2008 as in 2007. For five years the Forsa polling firm has carried out this kind of survey on behalf of AWD, a financial service provider. In 2007 the saving index had been 62% and 69% in 2006.
According to Forsa, a falling saving index is also a sign of a positive economic situation of Germans. Thus, while at the beginning of 2007 there were still 51% of respondents who expected to have less money to spend in future this percentage fell to just 42% at the start of 2008. However, in particular the bracket of those aged between 41 and 50 years expect a further restriction of their spending potential (53%). The Forsa survey also revealed that this year 24% of Germans want to spend more money than last year (26%). 