Germany's financial markets' experts stay pessimistic in April

Germany's financial markets' experts stay pessimistic in April terms of the economic outlook. The economic expectations indicator published by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim declined further following the plunge in March due to the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia. The index reached -41% in April compared to -39.3% in the previous month.

The index reached -41% in April compared to -39.3% in the previous month

The current situation indicator also declined but not as fast and not to such a low level. It fell to -30.8% compared to -21.4% in March.

The data breakdown of the expectations index reveal that a bigger share of the respondents expect no change (29.4% in April compared to 21.5% in March), while the shares of both optimists and pessimists have shrunk.

As many western countries imposed sanctions on Russia due to the invasion in Ukraine, Germany stands out as especially vulnerable, because it is heavily dependent on Russian natural gas imports.

The ZEW Indicator is constructed as the difference between the percentage share of analysts who are optimistic and the share of analysts who are pessimistic for the German economy. The participants in the survey are up to 350 financial market experts.

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