Eurozone's economic sentiment plummets in March

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA

Eurozone's economic sentiment index decreased sharply by 15.9 points to reach 13.4 points, a Germany-based research center announced on Tuesday.

"The experts’ assessment of the current economic situation in the Eurozone has also decreased, falling 1.5 points to a level of 56.2 points," the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) said.

It also said that the index decreased by 12.7 points to 5.1 points in Germany, where long-term average is 23.6 points.

The country's assessment of the current situation indicator decreased by 1.6 points to reach 90.7 percent, it added.

"Concerns over a US-led global trade conflict have made the experts more cautious in their prognoses," said Achim Wambach, president of ZEW.

The U.S. has recently started to impose an addition tariff on imported steel and aluminium which several economists and politicians around the world saw as “trade war”.

"Combined with the experts’ continued positive assessment of the current situation, however, the outlook is still largely positive."

The results stemmed from a survey participated by 220 analysts, who were asked about their expectations for the next 6 months.