Economic Expectations Are Increasing

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany increased in the current November 2021 survey, climbing 9.4 points to a new reading of 31.7 points. This is the first time since May that the indicator has recorded a rise.

The assessment of the economic situation in Germany has worsened again in the current survey, falling by 9.1 points to a level of 12.5 points.

“Financial market experts are more optimistic about the coming six months. However, the renewed decline in the assessment of the economic situation shows that the experts assume that the supply bottlenecks for raw materials and intermediate products as well as the high inflation rate will have a negative impact on the economic development in the current quarter. For the first quarter of 2022, they expect growth to pick up again and inflation to fall both in Germany and the eurozone,” comments ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach on current expectations.

The financial market experts’ sentiment concerning the economic development of the eurozone has risen again for the first time since May and currently stands at 25.9 points, 4.9 points higher than in the previous month. The situation indicator reached a new level of 11.6 points, dropping 4.3 points compared to October 2021.

Inflation expectations for the eurozone declined very sharply in the current survey. The indicator currently stands at minus 14.3 points, which corresponds to a decrease of 31.4 points compared with the October result. This shows that the experts expect the inflation rate in the eurozone to decline over the next six months.

More information and studies on the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment and the release dates 2021 (as PDF file, 28 KB) and the historical time series (as Excel file, 81 KB)

More about Achim Wambach on Twitter: @AchimWambach