German consumer confidence unexpectedly improved to 1.8 from 1.5 in September on the back of falling oil prices. Indeed, the improved sentiment should help to brighten the growth outlook for Europe’s largest economy, but a breakdown of the report showed that all of the components continued to hold in negative territory, which suggests that the economy is far from recovery. Amid mounting growth concerns for Germany, the ECB persists to hold a hawkish outlook on inflation, which suggests that the central bank will hold the benchmark interest rate steady at 4.25% for the rest of the year.
