German consumers' willingness to spend rose in February to its highest level since the launch of euro notes and coins in 2002 as health reform fears faded and tax cuts began to be felt.
The GfK market research group said today its survey of 2,000 Germans found consumers were also more optimistic about the economy than at any time since September 2002.
"The consumer sentiment was obviously still affected by the health service reforms in January," GfK said in a statement.
"But based on the results of the current consumer survey, the commotion seems to have died down, so that consumer sentiment was able to get back onto the past year's road to recovery."
The surprise jump, coming one day after Germany's Ifo business climate index fell for the first time in 10 months, helped push German bond prices lower in early trade.
Shares in German retailers KarstadtQuelle and Metro both opened higher, by 0.52 per cent and 0.26 per cent respectively.
Ifo found retailers the only sector to be more positive in February than in January, although the improvement was slight.