Mubasher: German consumer sentiment is set to improve slightly heading into December, signalling that household spending will continue to catalyse growth in Europe’s leading economy, a research group GfK said on Tuesday.

GfK’s consumer sentiment index, based on the responses of 2,000 Germans, is expected to rise to 9.7 points in December, compared with the revised estimate of 9.6 in November.

Meanwhile, analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) expected a reading of 9.6 points for the next month.

Economic expectations saw a significant improvement in November, with the respective sub-gauge climbing from -13.8 to 1.7 points.

This came due to “tentative signs of easing” in the trade dispute between the US and China.

In addition, the gauge for consumers’ inclination to buy remained at high level, even it declined to 50 points. Propensity to buy is expected to remain supported in the futures as a result of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) renewed extension of its ultra-low rate policy.

The index of income expectations also jumped to 45.5 from 39 points in November.

 “Consumers are therefore optimistic about the upcoming holiday season, one of the busiest times of the year for a number of retail industries such as consumer electronics and toys,” Nuremberg-based pollster’s researcher Rolf Buerkl said in a statement.

By 9:35 am GMT, the EUR/USD pair inched up by 0.04% to $1.1018.