European investor confidence at worst level since pandemic

Investor confidence in the euro area fell in September to its worst level since May 2020, shortly after the start of the global pandemic of COVID-19, according to the index compiled by the German agency Sentix, which stood at -31.8 points, from -25.2 points the previous month.

"Overall global economic conditions continued to deteriorate in early September. Although signs in Europe have been pointing to a considerable recession for some time, there are now signs of a similar development globally," said Sentix managing partner Manfred Hübner.

Investors' assessment of the current situation has thus fallen by 10 points, from -16.3 in August to -26.5 in September. This is the worst reading since February 2021.

The index's worst performance was in investor expectations, which fell by 3.2 points to -37. This is the worst level observed by Sentix since December 2008.

Sentix believes that the future crisis could be worse than the dotcom, euro or COVID-19 crises. This is because, although the impact of the pandemic was greater, central banks responded to it with huge stimulus programmes, something that is not going to happen in the short term as the monetary cycle is in a contractionary process.