The recession has hit Germany as hard as many other countries. But consumers there are fighting back. The GfK Group, a market research firm, reported that consumers in Germany are now more willing to purchase goods and services than at any time since August 2007.

Online shopping is expected to play a key role. Retail e-commerce sales in the country have been rising steadily, and reached €13.4 billion ($19.7 billion) in 2008, according to the Bundesverband des Deutschen Versandhandels, a trade group for the e-commerce and mail order businesses.



That e-commerce sales total actually exceeded the estimate made by the Bundesverband in March 2008 of less than €12 billion ($17.6 billion) for the year.

The picture is not entirely rosy. Experts generally agree that the German economy is in recession, and will contract in 2009. The German government has predicted a fall of 2.25% in GDP, but there is no consensus on whether the government’s estimate is accurate.

On the plus side, the rate of inflation is expected to stay low, preserving consumers’ purchasing power. Together with recent agreements guaranteeing good salaries to industrial unions such as metal and electrical workers, the low inflation rate may even fuel a small rise -estimated to be between 0.5% and 1.0% - in overall consumption in 2009.