According to the ZEW Centre for European Economic Research, confidence among German investors has jumped more than forecast to its highest level in three years.
The sentiment indicator index increased to 48.2 in February compared to the 31.5 posted in January, making it the highest reading since April 2010. Economists had been predicting a rise to 35.
Carsten Brzeski at ING Bank said; “The ZEW index has not had the best track record when it comes to predicting German economic activity. In fact, since 2006, the index had a tendency to ‘miss’ the periods of strong growth.
‘Since mid-2011, however, the components of the ZEW and the Ifo have broadly stayed in tune. With this in mind, we could see another increase of Germany’s leading confidence indicator, the ifo index, at the end of this week. Without any single hard data for 2013, the prospects for the German economy look promising.”
The Bundesbank supported the ZEW result saying; “Germany’s outlook has improved relatively quickly and in remarkable fashion in the past three months,” the bank said in its monthly report yesterday. “For the first quarter of 2013 an expansion of overall economic output can be expected from today’s perspective. For the remainder of the year, a gradual economic recovery is on the cards.”
As of 11:00 am
The Euro to Pound Sterling exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 0.8621
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.3353
The Euro to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.2918
The Euro to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.5798
The Euro to Canadian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 1.3516
The Euro to Emirati Dirham exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 4.9039
The Euro to Swiss Franc is currently trading in the region of 1.2332
The Euro to Japanese Yen exchange rate is currently trading in the region of 124.888