德国人不肯花钱(一)
德国人不肯花钱
Germans are unwilling to spend
新年前夕,德国总理格哈特•施罗德(Gerhard Schroeder)向全国发表讲话,他不同寻常地建议: 德国同胞应该以积极购物迎接2004年。他说:“国家的经济命运大部分掌握在你们手中。”其实,他也许是在白费口舌。
When Gerhard Schroeder addressed the nation on New Year's eve, he had some unusual advice. His fellow citizens, he said, should start 2004 with some serious shopping: "The fate of the economy largely lies in your hands." He might as well have been talking to a wall.
捷孚凯(GfK)市场研究机构上周公布的调查结果显示,德国消费者信心指数在去年下半年轻微反弹后,又出现回落。随后,政府于上周五公布了疲软的12月份零售额数据。
A survey published last week by the GfK market research institute showed consumer sentiment in Germany had fallen again after a slight rebound in the second half of last year. This was followed by the publication of dismal December retail salesfigures last Friday.
这是个老问题了。私人消费连续两年停滞增长,接着在2002年出现下降。实际上,自上世纪90年代两德统一引发的消费热潮结束以来,家庭消费状况从未真正复苏过。在过去十年的大部分时间内,德国的消费水平一直落后于美国。
The problem is not new. After stagnating for two years, private consumption fell in 2002. In fact, households never really recovered from the reunification- induced boom of the early 1990s, with spending lagging behind the US for much of the decade.
另一方面,德国人收入中储蓄的部分却越来越多,2002年德国人的储蓄率达10.5%,几乎是美国当年水平的三倍。
Germans, on the other hand, have been putting an ever-larger share of their income aside, with savings rates reaching 10.5 per cent in 2002, almost three times the US level that year.
一些偶尔来德国的人会认为,吝啬是德国人的典型特征,这种想法也许可以谅解。几乎在所有生活领域,节俭都被视为一种美德,只有汽车消费除外,因为汽车的价格和性能显示一个人的社会地位。
Occasional visitors could be forgiven for thinking parsimony is a typically German trait. With the exception of cars - whose price and performance define one's social standing - in almost all areas of life penny-pinching is considered a virtue.
周六早晨,你顺路到德国成功的食品折扣店Aldi或Lidl去看看,那里的停车场上肯定停着几辆保时捷(Porsche)或奔驰(Mercedes)。去年,Saturn推出的市场营销广告“节约就是酷”在德国大获成功。Saturn是德国最大的零售集团麦德龙(Metro)旗下的电子消费品子公司。
Drop by Aldi or Lidl, the successful food discounters, on a Saturday morning and there are bound to be a few Porsches and Mercedes in the car park. Last year's greatest marketing success was the "thrift is cool" campaign run by Saturn, the consumer electronics arm of Metro, Germany's largest retail group.
“就连那些根本不必存钱的人也养成一种买便宜货的心态,”曼海姆市场心理研究院主管盖特•古特雅尔(Gert Gutjahr)说,“我把这种现象称为‘声援型’购物。这是他们满足其社会良知的一种方式。”
"Even those who really do not need to be saving any money are developing a bargain-hunting mentality," says Gert Gutjahr, head of the Institute for Market Psychology in Mannheim. "I call it solidarity-shopping. It is a way to appease their social conscience."
但对经济学家来说,节俭与民族性无关,而是一种理性的表现。德国与欧洲其它国家不同,由于薪水的上涨被税收和社会保障支出的上升所抵消,可支配收入在过去10年始终停滞不前。在欧盟15国中,如今德国的人均收入排在第11位。
For economists, however, frugality is not about national character but rationality. Unlike the rest of Europe, disposable income in Germany has stagnated in the past 10 years as wage increases were offset by rises in tax and social security contributions. Today Germany ranks 11 out of the 15 European Union states in terms of income per capita.
从上世纪90年代中期起,德国的失业率就以令人担心的速度上升。与此同时,德国的家庭负债额也在增长,2000年达到顶峰,占可支配收入的112%,与美国当时的状况类似。花旗集团的何塞•路易斯•阿尔索拉(Jose Luis Alzola)表示,尽管目前德国的利率水平处于历史低点,但人们再也不像80年代那样“借钱花”了。
(编辑:youke)