By Marco Babic
ZURICH (MaceNews) – Expectations for Germany’s economy started the year off on a positive note, even in the face of uncertainty about new COVID-19 restrictions, with the outlook for the export market in particular providing a foundation for optimism.
The ZEW Institute’s Indicator of Economic Sentiment rose 6.8 points to 61.8 in January, beating the median forecast of 60.0 in an Econoday survey of economists.
“Despite the uncertainty about the further course of the lockdown, the economic outlook for the German economy has improved slightly,” and according to ZEW President Achim Wambach. Furthermore, “export expectations in particular have risen significantly”, he added.
Current conditions were relatively unchanged, rising 0.1 point to -66.4, which was better than the Econoday median of -68.
Overall, Germany fared better than the countries comprising the Euro-area economies which saw a gain of 3.9 points to 58.3 for Economic Sentiment, while current conditions soured somewhat, down -3.2 points to -78.9.
The Ifo Institute will release its Business Climate Index on January 25 which will give another indication as to how sentiment is shaping up at the start of 2021.
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Contact this reporter: marco@macenews,com.
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