Investing.com - German economic sentiment deteriorated sharply in March, dampening optimism over the health of 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 tumbled by 9.1 points to 46.6 this month from February’s reading of 55.7. Analysts had expected the index to fall by 2.7 points to 53.0 in March.
The Current Conditions Index improved to 51.3 this month from 50.0 in February, missing expectations for an increase to 52.0.
Meanwhile, the index of euro zone economic sentiment dropped to 61.5 in March from 68.5 in February, worse than expectations for a decline to 67.3.
On the index, a level above 0.0 indicates optimism, a level below 0.0 indicates pessimism.
Following the release of that data, the euro added to losses against the U.S. dollar, with EUR/USD shedding 0.22% to trade at 1.3892, compared to 1.3913 ahead of the data.
Meanwhile, European stock markets remained lower. The EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.5%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.2%, Germany's DAX shed 0.6%, while London’s FTSE 100 inched down 0.3%.