Germany consumer confidence up

NUREMBERG, Germany, April 27 (UPI) -- German consumer confidence is rising, and recently hit a high last seen when the euro was introduced five years ago.

The influential GfK survey reported Wednesday that for April people were more open to big-ticket purchases than at any time since 1999.

The Gfk report followed a monthly survey of businesses by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, which found the highest level of confidence since 1991, the New York Times reported Thursday.

German economists say the survey appears to have picked what can mostly be described as a mood change.

"If you take the Ifo survey literally, Germany should be growing on the order of 4 percent a year," said Thomas Mayer, the chief European economist at Deutsche Bank in London. Mayer looks for no more than a 2 percent growth this year from Germany.

Indeed, a GfK spokesman said its survey could actually create disappointment.

"If the long-term outlook does not improve, this could end up being a flash in the pan," said Dirk Morsdorf, a researcher at GfK, a market research firm in Nuremberg that conducted the survey. "There is a level of anticipation in these figures that could easily be disappointed."