FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - After a weak year on the stock market, investors in Germany are looking for the safest possible investments for 2023. In a representative survey commissioned by the Association of German Banks, 81 percent said they would "rather not" or "not at all" imagine taking a higher risk for a higher return.

A majority of 52 percent would like to invest a larger amount of money in real estate in the new year. However, only 21 percent actually did so in the past year. Also popular, at 43 percent, is an investment in gold, which only 12 percent of respondents actually did in 2022. Far ahead in investor favor continue to be fund shares (38 percent) and savings plans (37 percent), which were already the favorites in 2022.

Association representative Henriette Peucker described as an "important and positive signal" the fact that seven out of ten respondents aged 18 to 29 consider shares suitable for old-age provision. Since 2019, according to the survey results, the proportion of investors among young adults has grown from 38 percent to 54 percent. This is just above the figure of 53 percent for the population as a whole. Almost half of people in Germany (44 percent) still do not invest any money at all, while 3 percent do not provide any information on this.

In 2022, the investors surveyed were on average very unhappy with their investments. Less than 30 percent were satisfied with their performance, marking the lowest figure since the survey began in 2012. Commenting on this, Peucker said, "We have had a rather weak year on the stock market and are still stuck in historically high inflation."/ceb/DP/zb