German Economic Sentiment Falls to Over 3-Year Low in World Economy News 22/04/2026 Germany’s ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment plunged by 16.7 points to -17.2 in April 2026, marking its lowest level since December 2022 and falling far short of market expectations of -5. The sharp decline, following March’s third-largest monthly drop in the indicator’s history, reflects deepening pessimism as the escalating Middle East conflict weighs on Germany’s economic outlook. ZEW President Prof. Achim Wambach warned that the Iran war’s impact extends beyond rising prices, with fears of long-term energy shortages dampening investment and undermining government stimulus efforts. Sectoral expectations remain heavily affected: while the automotive industry stayed relatively stable (at -44.2), outlook for the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors (down 11 points) and steel and metal production (down 21 points) deteriorated sharply. Meanwhile, construction sector expectations slipped into negative territory, declining by 3.8 points. Source: Trading Economics 2026-04-22 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share