German ZEW Economic Sentiment Index improves to 28.1 in February vs. 22.0 expected

Economic sentiment in Germany and the Eurozone improved further in February.
EUR/USD remains uninspired by the upbeat ZEW surveys, holding lower ground around 1.0660.

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

The German ZEW headline number showed that the Economic Sentiment Index improved further, arriving at 28.1 in February from 16.9 in January, beating the market expectation of 22.0.

Meanwhile, the Current Situation Index came in at -45.1 from -58.6 but outpaced the market expectation of -50.0

During the same period, the ZEW Economic Sentiment Index for the Eurozone jumped to 29.7 from 16.7.

Key points

A large fraction of the survey participants expects the economic situation to improve in six months’ time.

Current situation is still assessed as relatively unfavourable.

As in the previous month, the increase in expectations can be traced back to higher profit expectations in the energy- and export-oriented sectors as well as the consumer-related parts of the economy.

Expectations for longterm interest rates are also rising and the banking sector indicator has reached its highest level since 2004.

Market reaction

The EUR/USD pair is uninspired by the upbeat data, keeping its range near 1.0660, down 0.22% on the day.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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