Economic Expectations Continue to Improve

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany continued to improve in October 2017, however, not as strongly as in the previous month. The indicator currently stands at 17.6 points, which corresponds to an increase of 0.6 points compared with the September result. The indicator, however, still remains below the long-term average of 23.8 points. "The improved outlook for the coming six months is not least the result of the surprisingly positive growth figures seen in the previous months. In August, figures for both production and incoming orders were significantly better than expected. The framework conditions for German exports, which have already seen a significant rise, are further improved by positive growth figures for Europe. The fact that the inflation rate is rising again, and expected to climb further, equally points towards a positive economic development in Germany, making a change in the ECB’s monetary policy more likely," comments ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach.

The assessment of the current economic situation in Germany has slightly decreased, but is still at a very high level. The indicator currently stands at 87.0 points, falling by 0.9 points compared to the previous month.

The financial market experts’ sentiment concerning the economic development of the Eurozone has considerably decreased. The corresponding indicator has fallen by 5.0 points, to a reading of 26.7 points. In contrast, the indicator for the current economic situation in the Eurozone has climbed by 1.0 point to a level of 36.5 points.

For further information please contact

Dr. Michael Schröder, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-368, E-mail michael.schroeder@zew.de

Lea Steinrücke, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-311, E-mail lea.steinruecke@zew.de

More information and studies on the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment and the release dates 2017 (as PDF file, 28 KB) and the historical time series (as Excel file, 81 KB)