Germany’s investor confidence improves in January but still underperforming

Niall Swan

22-Jan-2019

LONDON (ICIS)–Investor confidence in Germany rose in January but remains well below its long-term average as Europe’s largest economy continues to underperform, the country’s Zew economic research institute said on Tuesday.

The Zew indicator of economic sentiment for Germany rose by 2.5 points from December to stand at minus 15.0 in January.

The long-term average is 22.4 points.

“It is remarkable that the Zew economic sentiment for Germany has not deteriorated further given the large number of global economic risks,” said the research institute’s president Achim Wambach.

“The financial market experts have already considerably lowered their expectations for economic growth in the past few months,” he added.

CHEMICALS
For the chemicals-pharmaceuticals sector, the respective Zew sub-index fell 5.8 points to stand at -4.1 in January.

The chemicals-intensive construction sector’s index posted a 10.8-point increase, however, to stand at 37.9.

BREXIT, GLOBAL WOES
Wambach said that the UK parliament’s rejection of the Brexit deal as well as weaker growth in China have already been anticipated in this month’s survey.

Confidence in the eurozone  was up slightly, rising by 0.1 points to stand at minus 20.9.

Meanwhile, the assessments of the current situation in both Germany and the eurozone fell once again in January, down 17.7 points and 6.8 points respectively to 27.6 and 5.3.

Pictured: Power plant in Germany’s state of North Rhine-Westphalia
Source: Hans Blossey/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock

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