FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Confidence among German investors beat analysts’ expectations to reach its highest level since summer 2015 in April, a monthly survey by the ZEW economic institute showed Tuesday.
The institute’s headline index measuring expectations for the coming months leapt to 19.5 points, from 12.8 in March. Analysts surveyed by Factset had predicted a much smaller increase, to 13.8 points.
“The economic situation in Germany showed itself to be very stable in the first quarter” this year, with “positive figures for growth in industrial production, construction and retail sales,” ZEW president Achim Wambach said in a statement.
“Financial market experts expect that this positive development will continue,” he went on.
Investors’ confidence has climbed back to its level from before Britons’ vote to quit the EU last June, the institute pointed out.
A sub-index measuring investors’ view of the current economic situation in Germany hit its highest level since 2011, and the same measure looking at the eurozone as a whole also improved.
But the measure of expectations for the coming months in the 19-nation single currency area showed only sluggish improvement.
ZEW compiles its investor confidence index based on a survey of 204 financial players in Germany.
