German future business confidence improves

Another sign that Europe’s largest economy is stabilising after suffering its sharpest slump since reunification in 1990 – German business sentiment is on the rise again.

The Ifo economic think tank’s business climate index was up for the third month in a row. The last time it was at that level was seven month ago. But companies remain cautious. IFO economist Kai Carstensen said: “ The IFO index has recovered slightly but it is still at a very low level. The ‘plus’ we see has only to do with expectations. As far as the present situation goes, firms are pessimistic as they were last month.” Indeed the 7,000 firms that Ifo questioned had a slightly worse assessment of current conditions than in May – which gave that part of the survey its worst reading since reunification. And some analysts warned the turn around could be some way off and this might be just the latest expectations bubble.More about: Germany

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