 Germany's economy appears to be faltering |
Confidence among German investors fell in March, amid fears about the speed of economic recovery and following the Madrid bombings, a survey has found. The Mannheim-based ZEW institute said its monthly gauge of economic expectations fell to 57.6 in March, from almost 70 last month.
ZEW said responses before the bombings came out at 59.1 while the responses after the attacks was 55.9.
The drop was well below analysts' expected figure of about 66.
Output down
"There seems to be a visible impact from the attacks, but it would have fallen anyway," said Rainer Guntermann from the German investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
That view was echoed by Ed Teather of UBS Warburg who said although the Madrid bombings had an impact, the weakness in the indicator was due to "other factors".
Before the attacks there were signs that recovery in Germany's economy - which contracted in 2003 for the first time in a decade - was faltering.
Germany's Dax index of leading shares reached a one-and-a-half year low in January while industrial orders and output were down at the beginning of the year.
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