German ZEW economic sentiment dropped sharply from 8.7 to -49.5 in March, way worse than expectation of -23.4. The -58.2 pts decline was the largest since the survey started back in December 1991. That’s also the lowest since 2008 financial crisis. Current situation index dropped to -43.1, down from -15.7, missed expectation of -25.0. For Eurozone, ZEW economic sentiment dropped -59.9 pts to -49.5. Current situation index dropped -38.2 to -48.5.
“The economy is on red alert. The financial market experts currently expect to see a decline in real gross domestic product in the first quarter, while also considering a further drop in the second quarter to be very likely. For the whole of 2020, the majority of experts currently expect a decline in real GDP growth of approximately one percentage point as a result of the corona pandemic,” comments ZEW President Achim Wambach.
