German ZEW economic sentiment improved to -15 in January, up from -17.5, and beat expectation of -18.5. ZEW current situation, however, dropped to 27.6, down from 45.3 and missed expectation of 43.3. ZEW noted that the indicator is still well below the long-term average of 22.4. And current economic situation once again decreased considerably.
ZEW President Achim Wambach said  “It is remarkable that the ZEW Economic Sentiment for Germany has not deteriorated further given the large number of global economic risks. The financial market experts have already considerably lowered their expectations for economic growth in the past few months. New, potentially negative factors such as the rejection of the Brexit deal by the British House of Commons and the relatively weak growth in China in the last quarter of 2018 have thus already been anticipated,”
Eurozone ZEW economic sentiment, however, rose just marginally to -20.9, up from -21.0 and missed expectation of -20.1. Eurozone current situation also dropped -6.8 pts to 5.3.
