German consumer confidence slips again

The survey from the GfK research group found a third consecutive slip in consumer confidence in the country, even though German business confidence has been rising for months.

The Nuremberg-based group's forward-looking consumer climate index for January stood at 3.3 points -- down from a revised 3.6 points in December and 4 points in November.

Besides fears of job losses in the new year, the "expectation of rising prices in the energy sector is currently having a dampening effect," GfK said in its monthly report.

"Looming uncertainty as a result of worsening conditions on the labor market is leading to a perceptible increase in the propensity to save. This is also weighing on the consumer climate," it added.

The concern comes even though the jobless rate in November unexpectedly narrowed by 0.1 percentage points to 7.6 percent, with some 3.2 million Germans out of work in a population of approximately 82 million.