By Emese Bartha

FRANKFURT--German consumer sentiment shows signs of recovery with slightly increased optimism at the start of the year, GfK market research group said in its monthly survey on Wednesday.

GfK's forward-looking index is set to come in at 9.9 points in February, up from an upwardly revised 9.7 points for January, it said.

The first reading for January showed a value of 9.6 points. Economists in The Wall Street Journal's survey forecast the index at 9.6 points. GfK uses three sub-indexes for the current month to derive a sentiment figure for the coming month.

In January, economic expectations rose to minus 3.7 points from minus 4.4 points in December and income expectations increased to 44.6 points from 35.0 points, GfK said.

The propensity to buy increased to a 12-month high of 55.5 points in January from 52.2 points in December, GfK said.

"Above all, the rise in income expectations and propensity to buy at the beginning of this year will allow the consumer climate to pick up," GfK said.

The positive start for the consumer climate in 2020 confirms GfK's assessment that private consumption will continue to be an important pillar of the German economy this year, it said.

GfK has forecast real growth of one percent for private consumption spending in Germany in 2020, it said.

Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2020 02:14 ET (07:14 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.