Germany: Sentix research group warns world economies of 'imminent recession risks'

M/S Managing Director of Sentix GmbH Manfred Huebner arriving in conference room in Sentix headquarters, Frankfurt
C/U Sentix press release
M/S Huebner looking at Sentix press release
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "The key finding of our Sentix economic survey we published is that investors are very unimpressed by [the] latest central banks' measures to revive economic growth. We see that our data shows a new low in the current situation index, as well as the expectations index, especially for Germany and surprisingly for the United States where we see a fresh low for the last six years."
W/S Huebner during interview *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "Recession risks are not only justified, they are imminent. If we look at our data and see that current situation indexes are a negative territory, this means that investors expect the markets or the economy to be already in recession. And the biggest problem in the current situation is that investors, at least in the equity space, are not very well prepared for deep recession. They believe that the central banks will do enough to prevent a deeper economic crisis, and they also think that central banks are powerful [enough] to do that. The problem is what if this is not the case? We see that economic momentum is [a] very negative territory, we have a very steep decline."
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "It is, for politicians in Germany, at the moment, not very helpful to tell people we need more growth, because for the world climate we need maybe not more growth, but the economy depends [on] it. And so the situation is definitely the worse in Germany, not only from the numbers but also from the difficult situation that there is no a politicians standing up and saying 'hey, we need measures to revive growth'."
C/U Sentix document *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "What is most demanded, at least for Germany, is that we see some tax reliefs, that we see for all countries, if you look [at] Trump, [at] Brexit, [at] all these things, we need a reduction of uncertainty."
M/S Huebner during interview *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "An economic cycle is something very usual, very normal. So, we should not be surprised after eight, ten years of economic expansion that the cycle comes to an end and some sort of correction kicks in. But the problem at this time is that, the politicians, the people who take economic decisions are so unprepared [for] this situation, because in the last ten years they relied on central banks, and say 'okay, we don't have to do our homework, central banks will save us'."
M/S Huebner during interview *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Manfred Huebner, Managing Director of Sentix GmbH: "You cannot blame anyone for a normal economic cycle, but what you can say is that politics do not [do] enough to get a well coordinated and positive answer to that."
M/S Huebner during interview *CUTAWAY*
SCRIPT
Managing director of the Sentix research group, Manfred Huebner, warned that the recession risks for the world economies and especially for Germany are "imminent," in an interview at the firm's headquarters in Frankfurt on Monday.
Following the publication of Sentix's latest survey, Huebner said that "investors are very unimpressed by [the] latest central banks' measures to revive economic growth."
"The biggest problem in the current situation is that investors, at least in the equity space, are not very well prepared for deep recession. They believe that the central banks will do enough to prevent a deeper economic crisis, and they also think that central banks are powerful [enough] to do that. The problem is what if this is not the case?" he added.
Huebner specified however that "an economic cycle is something very usual, very normal. So, we should not be surprised after eight, ten years of economic expansion that the cycle comes to an end and some sort of correction kicks in." He then slammed politicians for being "unprepared" for the upcoming recession.
The Sentix survey reported that investor morale in the euro-zone fell to its lowest level in six and a half years.