- Achim Wambach, ZEW
The mood among German investors improved markedly in April amid strong economic growth in the Q1 and easing concerns over the US President Donald Trump's protectionist policies. The Mannheim-based ZEW Institute reported on Tuesday that its Economic Sentiment Index jumped to 19.5, the highest level since August 2015, from 12.8 points seen in March, while analysts anticipated a slight increase to 13.2. Despite Trump's latest border tax threats, the German car industry reported that it started the year with solid growth. Moreover, figures released last week showed that both German industrial production and trade surplus soared in February. The assessment of the current economic situation in Germany climbed to 80.1 points in April, compared to the previous month's 77.3, whereas markets expected a modest increase to 77.7 during the reported period. Many analysts revised up its growth projections for the German economy. Thus, the Euro zone's largest economy is set to expand 1.5% in 2017 and 1.8% in 2018. Tuesday's strong figures provided support to the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government ahead of the September parliamentary elections. After the release, the EUR/USD pair rose above 1.0600.
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