German investor sentiment improves more than expected in April

German investor confidence came in better than expected for April, according to the latest survey from the ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim.

The index of investor and analyst expectations rose to 11.2 from 4.3 in March, beating consensus estimates of 8.0.

The index for current expectations, however, fell to 47.7 in April from 50.7, missing expectations of 51.0.

Finally, the indicator of economic sentiment rose to 21.5 from 10.6, comfortably ahead of forecasts for a reading of 13.9.

"Surprisingly positive economic news from China seems to have improved the sentiment amongst financial market experts,” said Professor Sascha Steffen, head of the research department International Finance and Financial Management at ZEW.

“On balance, however, the continued poor growth in China and other important emerging markets continues to be a burden for the German export industry. Furthermore, concern about Great Britain’s possible exit from the EU seems to be having a negative impact.”

Pantheon Macroeconomics said: “A surprisingly strong headline, despite the dip in the current situation index, which we can safely ignore as long as the expectations gauge continues to rise.

“This is the second consecutive monthly increase in the expectations index. This offers hope that the collapse in Q1 is behind us, and that better times are ahead for equity investors as well as economic survey data in Germany.”