Germany's economic confidence rose significantly this month to the strongest level since April 2010 on hopes of the situation improving over the coming months, data from the Center for European Economic Research/ZEW showed Tuesday. The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment rose 16.7 points to 48.2 in February. This was the third consecutive increase and the reading far exceeded the consensus forecast of 35. Meanwhile, the assessment of the current economic situation dropped 1.9 points to 5.2 points. Economists say the ZEW index has hardly correlated with GDP growth, in the past. In the opinion of financial market experts, the German economy faces less headwinds from the euro crisis than throughout the last months, ZEW President Wolfgang Franz said. "If this situation remains unchanged during the next months, German business activity may pick up speed moderately," he added. At the same time, economic expectations for the euro area climbed 11.2 to 42.4 in February and the indicator for the current situation remained almost unchanged at -75.6. Bundesbank expects the German economy to return to growth in the first quarter and sees 0.4 percent expansion for the whole of 2013.