Link Securities | Expectations (economic sentiment) among major investors and analysts for the future of the German economy worsened in July, with the index measuring them falling from 47.5 points in June to 41.8 points, according to the German ZEW institute yesterday. FactSet consensus analysts had expected a slightly higher reading of 42.0 points. July’s decline was the first drop in a year for this indicator. The decline was mainly due to political uncertainty in France and a lack of clarity regarding monetary easing by the ECB.
For its part, the ZEW index, which measures these groups’ perception of the current situation of the German economy, improved slightly, although it remained negative, rising in its July reading to -68.9 points from -73.8 points in June. In this case the consensus analysts had expected a significantly worse reading of -74.8 points.
At the same time, the ZEW Eurozone economic sentiment index declined in July to 43.7 points from 51.3 points in June.
