Bad economic news has spread from troubled European Union nations to Germany. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany for April showed:
In April 2013 the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany has fallen by 12.2 points and is now at a level of 36.3 points. Despite its decline, the indicator currently hovers at its third highest mark within the last 24 months. The current level has only been exceeded in the two preceding months.
“Basically, the surveyed financial market experts remain confident, but are less optimistic than they have been in the previous month. The decline in economic sentiment is consistent with the release of economic data that fell short of expectations”, says ZEW President Prof. Dr. Clemens Fuest. German exports into the Eurozone as well as the rest of the world have declined, for instance. The debt crisis in the Eurozone is still unresolved and causes uncertainty.
Many economists have said Germany cannot escape the implosion of most of the rest of the region. Its exports are too concentrated there. Demand for exports from the United States and Japan probably remain modest, based on economic measures in those two countries. That leaves China, where recent data shows that its GDP growth engine has cooled.
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