German investor confidence rose for the fifth month in a row in April, shrugging off fears of a resurgence of the long-running euro zone debt crisis.
The ZEW think tank's economic expectations index beat expectations to rise by 1.1 points to 23.4 points in April, the organisation said.
Analysts had been pencilling in a drop this month following recent strong gains.
"The almost unchanged level of the index shows that expectations are stabilising,'' said ZEW president Wolfgang Fran.
''The experts polled by the ZEW continue to forecast a positive trend for the German economy in the next six months," he added.
Nevertheless, the only very modest increase in the indicator was likely because "substantial risks" are putting a dampener on sentiment, Franz suggested, pointing to "economic weakness in a number of important trading partners, trends in raw materials prices and the sovereign debt crisis."
For the survey, ZEW questions analysts and institutional investors about their current assessment of the economic situation in Germany, as well as their expectations for the coming months. The sub-index measuring investors' assessments of the current situation rose by 3.1 points to 40.7 points.
The ZEW index is the only barometer of investor confidence in Germany and this month's reading was based on responses from 275 analysts. A frequent criticism against it is that the index can be volatile and is therefore not particularly reliable.
Other business confidence indices, such as the purchasing managers' index or the all-important Ifo survey, which is based on as many as 7,000 responses in the real economy, are seen as more accurate indicators.
The next Ifo index is scheduled to be released later this week.
