German GfK Consumer Confidence declines to -29.7 in February vs. -24.5 expected

• Consumer confidence is expected to deteriorate further in Germany.
• EUR/USD stays in negative territory below 1.0850 early Friday.

Consumer sentiment in Germany is expected to continue to weaken in February, with the GfK Consumer Confidence Index dropping to -29.7 from -25.4 in January. This reading came in worse than the market expectation of -24.5.

Assessing the survey's findings, "If there were any hopes of a sustained recovery in sentiment, these were dashed in January," said Rolf Buerkl, consumer expert at the GfK Institute and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM), pre Reuters. "The consumer climate suffered a severe setback at the beginning of the year."

Market reaction

EUR/USD stays on the back foot following this disappointing data and was last seen losing 0.2% on the day at 1.0825.