German investor confidence sinks to 1.5 year low

Investment sentiment in Germany fell to its lowest level in nearly1.5 years in May amid concern recovery in Europe's top economy will losemomentum, a new survey found on Tuesday.The widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economicinstitute fell by 10.1 points to 33.1 points in May, it said in a statement.Analysts had been projecting a much softer drop to 41 points."Already, there are indications that Germany will not be able to maintain this fastpace of growth," said ZEW president Clemens Fuest."Nevertheless, one can assume a positive underlying trend for the economicdevelopment for the year 2014. The decline of the experts' economic expectationsfor Germany should be seen against the backdrop of a strong economicdevelopment in the first quarter," Fuest said.For the survey, ZEW questions analysts and institutional investors about theircurrent assessment of the economic situation in Germany, as well as theirexpectations for the coming months.The sub-index measuring financial market players' view of the current economicsituation in Germany rose by 2.6 points to 62.1 points in May its highest level sinceJuly 2011.A frequent criticism of the ZEW index is that it can be volatile and is therefore not particularly reliable.