Investing.com - German economic sentiment improved to the highest level in 12 months in February, easing concerns over the euro zone's largest economy, industry data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the ZEW Centre for Economic Research said that its index of German economic sentiment rose by 4.6 points to 53.0 this month from January’s reading of 48.4. Analysts had expected the index to improve by 6.6 points to 55.0 in February.
The Current Conditions Index improved to 45.5 this month from 22.4 in January, better than expectations for a rise to 30.0.
Meanwhile, the index of euro zone economic sentiment increased to an eight-month high of 52.7 in February from 45.2 in January, above forecasts for a gain to 51.3.
On the index, a level above 0.0 indicates optimism, a level below 0.0 indicates pessimism.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1379 from around 1.1389 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7405 from 0.7416 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were mostly lower. Germany's DAX lost 0.75%, the EURO STOXX 50 shed 0.8%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.7%, while London’s FTSE 100 eased up 0.1%.