German ZEW Economic Sentiment dropped sharply to 8.7 in February, down from 26.7, missed expectation of 20.4. German Current Situation index dropped to -15.7, down from -9.5, missed expectation of -10.0. Eurozone ZEW Economic Sentiment dropped to 10.4, down form 25.6, missed expectation of 21.3. Eurozone Current Situation dropped -0.4 to -10.3.
ZEW President Achim Wambach said: “The feared negative effects of the Coronavirus epidemic in China on world trade have been causing a considerable decline of the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany. Expectations regarding the development of the export-intensive sectors of the economy have dropped particularly sharply. Besides, the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 saw a worse-than-expected development of the German economy. Both the downward revision of the assessment of the economic situation and the downturn in expectations show clearly that economic development is rather fragile at the moment.”
