Experts do not see a rapid recovery in German growth, ZEW says

Analysts were slightly less downbeat in February on the prospects for the Eurozone's largest economy, even as their assessment of the current situation soured further.

The ZEW Institute's economic sentiment index rose by 1.6 points to -13.4, but a sub-index linked to financial market experts' view of the present state-of-play dropped by 12.6 points to 15.0.

Economists had forecast a reading of -14.0 for the former.

February's reading was also well below the gauge's long-term average value of 22.4 and a rapid bounce-back was not on the cards, according to the ZEW.

"At the moment, we do not expect a rapid recovery of the slowing German economy. The economic situation in Germany has been weak, especially in the manufacturing sector [...] incoming orders are stagnant and foreign trade currently provides no fresh impulses," ZEW President, Professor Achim Wambach, said.

"For the next six months, the financial market experts in our survey do not expect any improvement."

The ZEW's equivalent gauges for the Eurozone behaved similarly, with that tracking the outlook for activity in the single currency bloc up by 4.3 points to -16.6.

In parallel, the sub-index referencing experts' views on the current situation in the euro area dropped by 8.3 points to -3.0.

To take note of, the indicator of expectations for movements in short-term interest rates fell "strongly", the institute said, retreating by 5.3 points to 6.8.