Economic Expectations Are Increasing Slightly

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany recorded an increase of 2.5 points in January 2019, and now stands at minus 15.0 points. Despite this increase, the indicator is still well below the long-term average of 22.4 points. The assessment of the current economic situation in Germany once again decreased considerably in January, with the corresponding indicator falling by 17.7 points to a level of 27.6 points. This has been the lowest reading since January 2015.

 “It is remarkable that the ZEW Economic Sentiment for Germany has not deteriorated further given the large number of global economic risks. The financial market experts have already considerably lowered their expectations for economic growth in the past few months. New, potentially negative factors such as the rejection of the Brexit deal by the British House of Commons and the relatively weak growth in China in the last quarter of 2018 have thus already been anticipated,” comments ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach.

The financial market experts’ sentiment concerning the economic development of the Eurozone increased by merely 0.1 points, leaving the corresponding indicator at a level of minus 20.9 points. The indicator for the current economic situation in the Eurozone saw again a drop in January, falling by 6.8 points to a current level of 5.3 points.

The assessment of the inflation expectations in the Eurozone recorded a strong decrease for both the Eurozone and Germany. The corresponding indicator for the Eurozone currently stands at minus 13.3 points, 19.3 points below the reading from the previous month.

More information and studies on the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment and the release dates 2019 (as PDF file, 28 KB) and the historical time series (as Excel file, 81 KB)