German Investor Sentiment Falls

FRANKFURT (Bloomberg) — German investor confidence unexpectedly fell for the first time in six months, signaling that the uncertainty induced by Greece’s debt crisis may be weighing on Europe’s largest economy. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, fell to 53.3 in April from 54.8 in March. Economists had forecast an increase to 55.3, according to the median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The Bundesbank said on Monday that recent data suggest growth momentum in Germany is probably weaker than anticipated, though the economic expansion will continue to be “quite robust.” Factory orders dropped in the first two months of the year as fears of a Greek default damped demand. “The current weakness of the world economy is dampening export prospects and reducing the scope for further improvements of the economic situation in Germany,” ZEW President Clemens Fuest said in a statement. At the same time, “the German economy is in good shape. A stable labor market and increasing wages are strengthening confidence and boosting consumption.” Germany’s economy expanded 0.5 percent in the three months through March, according to a Bloomberg survey

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