- ZEW President Clemens Fuest
Confidence among businesses in Europe's largest economy improved slightly this May, however, less than expected, adding to signs the economic outlook worsens as the Euro region remains mired in recession. According to the ZEW Center for European Economic Research, a measure of investor and analyst expectations, which is designed to predict economic developments six months in advance, edged up to 36.4 from 36.3 in April. Analysts, however, expected a reading of 39.5 due to mostly positive data for the German economy. Meantime, a gauge of current expectations fell to 8.9 from 9.2 in April. German gross domestic product is widely expected to expand 0.3% in the first three months of 2013, recovering from a previous year's contraction.
"It's pretty clear that Germany has found its way back to growth," said Guillaume Menuet, a senior economist at Citigroup Inc. in London. "The problem is that it seems to be the only big European economy growing, and that's why the crisis in the euro area is far from over."
"Despite mostly positive economic data for the German economy, the ZEW indicator remains at the level of the previous month," said ZEW President Clemens Fuest. "
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