2020.12.0810:53:00UTC+00German ZEW Economic Confidence Strengthens Notably In December

German economic confidence improved notably in December after the announcement of forthcoming Covid-19 vaccine approvals, survey results from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed on Tuesday.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment climbed more-than-expected to 55.0 in December from 39.0 in the previous month.

The score was expected to advance to 45.5. Economic expectations have largely recovered from the sharp decline posted in November.

Sentiment improved in December despite the still high numbers of new coronavirus infections. This is most likely due to the announced forthcoming Covid-19 vaccine approvals, ZEW President Achim Wambach said.

However, the current situation index dropped to -66.5 from -64.3 in November. This was the second consecutive fall. Economists had forecast the indicator to fall to 66.0.

The financial market experts' sentiment concerning the economic development of the euro area improved even more significantly than for Germany, bringing the indicator to 54.4 points in December, up from 32.8 in the previous month, ZEW said.

At the same time, the indicator for the current economic situation in the currency bloc gained only 0.7 points to minus 75.7 points in December, data showed.

Data released by Eurostat showed that the euro area economy logged its biggest growth on record in the third quarter driven by household spending, investment and exports.

Eurozone gross domestic product grew 12.5 percent sequentially, reversing the 11.7 percent fall in the second quarter. Germany's GDP was up 8.5 percent in the third quarter.