Mubasher: Sentiment among German investors declined in October, but at less worse level than expected, amid worries that Europe’s biggest economy might be on course to recession.

The indicator for economic sentiment for Germany ticked down to -22.8 points in October, from -22.5 points in September, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) said.

“The recent settlement in the trade dispute between the US and China does not seem to diminish economic scepticism at this stage,” ZEW President Achim Wambach said.

US and Chinese officials last week drafted “phase one” trade deal to resolve a trade conflict, while Washington suspended its planned tariff hikes.

However both sides said that further work was needed before a pact could be hammered out.

The US-Sino trade conflict as well as other factors, including Brexit uncertainty, dragged Germany’s export-reliant industry to a recession, raising the threat that the negative trend could spill over to the rest of the economy.

Moreover, the separate gauge measuring investors’ assessment of the current conditions in the German economy fell to -25.3 points in October from -19.9 points in the previous month. This marked the lowest estimate since April 2010.

The index for the current economic conditions for the broader Eurozone slipped by 1.1 to -23.5 points in October.

By 10:29 am GMT, the EUR/USD pair went down by 0.06% to $1.1020.