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Investor sentiment down

May 19, 2015

German financial pundits have stopped being overly optimistic about the economic prospects in Europe's power house, a fresh survey shows. Investor sentiment pointed downward for the second month in a row.

https://p.dw.com/p/1FRpI
Assembly line
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Woitas

Investor sentiment in Germany fell to its lowest level since December 2014, a widely watched confidence barometer by the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) showed Tuesday.

The economic institute's index - gauging institutional investors' assessment of Germany's economic prospects in the next six months – dropped by a steeper-than-expected 11.4 points to 41.9 points in May.

"In May, respondents revised down their previous assessments once again," ZEW President Clement Fuest said in a statement.

Volatile markets

Fuest indicated investors might have been unnerved by Germany's slow growth rate. "The biggest drivers behind the revision are most likely Germany's negligible GDP expansion in the first quarter of the year as well as turbulence on stock and bond markets."

In the first three month of 2015, Germany's gross domestic product expanded by only 0.3 percent.

But prospects for the full year are rosier, with experts predicting 2-percent growth, following a 1.6-percent GDP increase in the previous year.

hg/sri (AFP, Reuters)