MANNHEIM (dpa-AFX) – Financial experts’ economic expectations for Germany surprisingly deteriorated in February. The sentiment barometer of the ZEW research institute fell by 1.3 points to 58.3 points compared to the previous month, as the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) announced on Tuesday in Mannheim. On average, economists had expected an increase to 65.2 points. The Financial markets hardly reacted to the data.
“The German economy is in a phase of fragile recovery,” commented ZEW President Achim Wambach. “The structural challenges, especially in industry and private investments, remain significant. The upcoming reforms of the social security systems should be used to significantly increase the attractiveness of the location.”
But some economists also see signs of hope. “The ZEW economic expectations have been stabilizing since the beginning of the year at a level that was last seen at the beginning of 2022, i.e. before the Russian attack on Ukraine,” commented Robin Winkler, chief Germany economist at Deutsche Bank. “Among other positive signals, the ZEW survey gives us fresh confidence that the German economy is continuing to gain momentum.”
The still very weak assessment of the situation has improved. The corresponding indicator rose by 6.8 points to minus 69.9 points. Economists had expected this increase.
In the Eurozone Overall, expectations worsened by 1.4 points to 39.4 points. The assessment of the current situation rose by 4.5 points to minus 13.6 points.
Experts are hoping for further information about economic developments in Germany and the Eurozone from the publication of the purchasing managers’ indices, which are due on Friday, and from the Ifo business climate, which will be published next Monday./jsl/la/mis