Market experts less optimistic about German economy

Lasting crisis in Europe and a weak global economy has made financial market experts less optimistic about German economy in the future, a survey showed on Tuesday.The Manheim-based Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) released the April result of its monthly Financial Market Survey on Tuesday. Among the 243 market analysts that participated in the survey, 48.3 percent expected German economy to improve in the next six months, 7.3 points less than in the previous month.Meanwhile, about 12.0 percent of the polled expected German economy to get worse, 4.9 points higher than in March.The indicator of economic sentiment for Germany fell by 12.2 points and stood at a level of 36.3 points."Basically, the surveyed financial market experts remain confident, but are less optimistic than they have been in the previous month," said ZEW President Clemens Fuest, adding that German exports to the euro zone as well as the world had declined. The debt crisis in the euro zone was still unresolved and caused uncertainty, Fuest added."The decline in economic sentiment is consistent with the release of economic data that fell short of expectations," he said.Several other economic research institutes have downwardly adjusted their forecast for German economy this year, expecting domestic demands, instead of the traditional growth engine of exports, to support the largest economy in Europe.Market experts' economic expectations for the euro zone also decreased in April. The respective ZEW indicator dropped by 8.5 points to 24.9 points. The indicator for the current economic situation in the euro zone remained almost unchanged and stood at minus 76.0 points.