BERLIN — Sentiment in Germany’s automotive trade took a tumble in February as considerations grew over falling demand, in response to a survey from the Ifo financial institute.

The institute mentioned on Friday in an announcement that its enterprise scenario index for the sector fell to six.0 from 12.5 in January.

“Producers specifically assess their present scenario as drastically worse than within the earlier month. This presumably has to do with the truth that consumers are being very cautious for the time being,” Oliver Falck, director of the Ifo Heart for Industrial Group and New Applied sciences, mentioned.

Suppliers, however, rated their present scenario as higher than within the earlier month, Ifo mentioned.

Producers’ outlook clouded over, falling from 21.4 factors in January to 2.8 factors in February, in response to the survey.

“Whereas producers are nonetheless at present working by way of present orders, demand from potential consumers is faltering. One cause could possibly be the unsure improvement of electrical energy costs. As well as, there’s speak of rationing energy for recharging automobile batteries,” Falck mentioned.

On the identical time, the institute mentioned automakers anticipated exports to develop. “The underside line is that fewer automakers plan to increase manufacturing within the coming months,” it mentioned.