**: Global Market Broadcast.
Investors in Germany are expecting an improvement for the seventh month in a row, and the improvement has exceeded expectations. This brings hope that Germany has passed the worst of times after more than a year of hardship.
Germany's ZEW Investor Expectations Index for February increased from 15 in January2 to 199, exceeding the median estimate of 173。A measure of the current situation fell to its lowest level since mid-2020.
Expectations for the German economy are improving again", said ACHIM Wambach, President of ZEW, in a statement. "Given that inflation is falling, more than two-thirds of respondents expect the ECB to cut interest rates in the next six months. A similar proportion of respondents expect an imminent U.S. rate cut.
According to the survey, Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) will again fail to record growth between January and March, compared to the previous growth of 01%。The Bundesbank was even more pessimistic, saying that the "best-case scenario" for the first quarter was a stagnant economy. Failure to reach that level would mean Germany's first recession since the pandemic.
However, optimism persists with the prospect of more accommodative monetary policy on the horizon.
Wolfgang Schmidt, a close aide to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the first signs of a consumer-led economy** were emerging, and that measures to cut red tape at the national and regional levels would further boost the trend.
There is no recession," he said Tuesday at an event organized by a local corporate lobby group in Berlin. "I don't see any of the signs that usually come with a recession, such as unemployment. The labor market is very stable, and real wages are rising again. Growth will be achieved this year. ”