SHOPPING Consumption in 2016 Will private consumers keep on propping up the German economy? By Rolf Bürkl GfK forecasts suggest that pri- vate household spending in Ger- many is set to increase by 2% in real terms in 2016. It expects an increase of between 1.5% and 2% for the European Union as a whole. This means that pri- vate consumption in Germany is likely to grow slightly more vig- orously than the country's gross 40 Deutsche EuroShop AG Annual Report 2015