Germany's consumer sentiment index rose to its highest in 13 years, market research group GfK said Wednesday, as it reported a jump in its forward-looking index from 9.0 points in January to 9.3 points in February.

The buoyant mood among the 2,000 Germans surveyed by the group beat analysts' expectations who had forecast a rise in the GfK index to just 9.1 points.

"Lower spending for car fuels and heating oil are boosting people's disposable income, leaving consumers more leeway for new purchases," GfK expert Rolf Bürkl said in a statement.

According to the data, a sub-index gauging Germans' propensity to spend is at its highest level in eight years, and they have never been more unwilling to save money than in the past 25 years.

As oil prices have almost halved in the past six months, German consumers were also expecting a major boost for the economy as a whole, Bürkl added. As a result, they believed that Europe's biggest economy would be climbing out of a brief lull in autumn last year, entering on a path of robust growth.

The sentiment among German consumers mirrors rising business confidence, which saw the closely-watched Ifo business climate index for January rise to its highest reading in more than 6 months.

uhe/ng (dpa, Reuters, AFP)