German Economic Sentiment Falters

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By Trey Thoelcke Published
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Germany’s economic fortunes have begun to crumble, as so many experts had feared. There was very modest hope that the European Union’s largest nation by gross domestic product might somehow sail through the region’s recession because of internal consumer demand and strong demand for its goods and services from outside the region. It now appears that the vacuum of Europe’s trouble has pulled Germany in.

The new ZEW measure of Economic Sentiment for Germany fell by 4.2 points in November 2012 to a level of minus 15.7 points. According to the ZEW report:

Similar to the previous months, the indicator’s negative balance shows that the surveyed experts rather expect the economy to deteriorate than to improve over the next six months. This month’s decline supports this view. The negative assessment in November may be due to disappointing leading indicators. In the manufacturing sector, for instance, weak incoming orders indicate a further drop in production.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.

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