Investor sentiment in Germany fell for the ninth month in a row in September amid jitters about the economic fallout from global crises, a survey indicated today.
The widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute fell by 1.7 points to 6.9 points in September, it said in a statement.
However it was a shallower decline than in previous months and the drop less steep than expected. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had pencilled in a reading of 5 points.
"The economic environment is still marked by great insecurity," ZEW president Clemens Fuest said in a statement.
"There is still the danger of a sanctions spiral with Russia and the euro zone economy is still showing disappointing development," he added.
Fuest said the uncertain impact of a break-up of the UK with a referendum vote for Scottish independence on Thursday was also rattling investors.
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 financial market players' view of the current economic situation in Germany fell sharply, by 18.9 points, to 25.4 points in September.
A frequent criticism of the ZEW index is that it can be volatile and is therefore not particularly reliable.
Analysts said today that the survey added to evidence that the German recovery is petering out. They said the ZEW showed a steady slide in confidence, perhaps reflecting ongoing fears about the effects of the Ukraine crisis and political instability elsewhere in the euro zone, most notably in France".
