BERLIN, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The percentage of Germans who are pessimistic about the economy has dropped significantly in the last month, according to an opinion poll by the Forsa research institute published by Stern magazine on Wednesday.
The representative survey of 2,502 Germans found 49 percent expect economic conditions to deteriorate, down from 58 percent in a similar poll published a month ago, Stern said.
The figure in the poll for Stern and RTL television, taken from Jan. 5th to 9th, marked the "lowest number of pessimists seen since early April 2002", Stern said. It said 22 percent expect the economy to improve, up from 19 percent in December.
The German economy contracted sharply in the final quarter of 2008, the federal statistics office said on Wednesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel's government this week agreed on a 50-billion euro stimulus package after a month of discussion. (Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Stephen Nisbet)