German ZEW declines to nine-month low in August
German economic sentiment fell to a nine-month low in August, data released on Tuesday showed, and worse than the market expected.
A report from the ZEW Centre for Economic Research showed its economic confidence index fell 4.7 points to 25.0 in August, dragged lower by concerns over the state of the global economy.
The figure marked the fifth consecutive decline and fell short of analysts’ expectations of a 2.3 points increase.
A sub-index on current economic conditions rose from 63.9 in July to 65.7, above expectations for a 64.3 reading, while the index of Eurozone economic sentiment climbed 3.9 points to 47.6, beating forecast for a 43.9 reading.
“The drop in the index echoes weakness in recent activity data, including industrial production and the PMI, suggesting that the German recovery will not gather much pace,” said James Howat, European economist at Capital Economics.