The strong price increases in almost all areas of life are currently causing people in Germany more concern than many other things. Even the war in Ukraine, climate change or the corona pandemic cannot keep up. This is the result of a representative survey by the management consultancy McKinsey published on Saturday.
Around 57 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents stated that their biggest concern is currently inflation. This is another significant increase compared to a survey in June, when 48 percent named price development as the number one problem. More than two-thirds of those surveyed expect prices to continue to rise.
According to the McKinsey experts, the issue of inflation has almost completely pushed all other concerns into the background in recent months. For comparison: only 18 percent of those surveyed named the Ukraine war as their greatest concern, 6 percent climate change and 3 percent the Covid 19 pandemic.
“No more scope for consumption”
“For more and more people in Germany, the wallet currently leaves no leeway for consumption beyond what is absolutely necessary,” reported McKinsey expert Marcus Jacob. According to their own statements, more than a third of consumers have already had to significantly limit their consumption of non-essential goods. More than half can no longer put anything on the high edge.
“There’s a lot going on: Four out of five people in Germany are currently consciously changing their shopping behavior in view of the new reality they perceive and feel on the account,” said Jacob. More inexpensive own brands would be bought and more frequently from discounters. More than 60 percent of those surveyed stated that they consciously save energy at home. According to the survey, around 16 percent have already canceled a holiday.
The rising prices are also affecting plans for Christmas: 53 percent of those surveyed want to do less Christmas shopping, and 12 percent even want to do without Christmas shopping altogether.
Overall, according to the survey, people in Germany are noticeably more pessimistic about the future than people in France, Great Britain, Italy or Spain. According to the survey, almost every second German citizen expects the current crisis to have long-lasting effects on the economy or even a long recession.
