German business sentiment improved in June, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim.

The headline ZEW investor expectations index rose to -8.5 from -10.7 in May, coming in above consensus expectations for a reading of -13.1.

Meanwhile, the current conditions index slid to -56.5 in June from -34.8 the month before, missing expectations of -40.0.

ZEW President Achim Wambach said: “The ZEW Indicator of economic sentiment shows a slight improvement, but it remains in negative territory. This means that experts do not anticipate an improvement in the economic situation during the second half of the year.

“Particularly, sectors focused on exports are likely to perform poorly due to a weak global economy. However, the current recession is generally not considered particularly alarming.”

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “Investors in Germany become a lot gloomier about current conditions in June, probably linked to recent GDP revisions revealing that the economy entered a technical recession in Q4 and Q1.

“This is old news, however, so we are more interested in the slight increase in the expectations index, halting a string of declines in recent months. The increase is consistent with the marginal rise in the Sentix expectations gauge released earlier in the month, the continued rally in equities, and easing inflation. One month does not make a trend, but stabilisation in investor sentiment is good news all the same, to the extent that it also, sometimes, signal stabilisation in the economic surveys.”