By Marco Babic
ZURICH (MaceNews) – Business sentiment in Germany improved for the fourth consecutive month in August as both current conditions and expectations for the situation in the next six months rose.
The Ifo Index of Business Sentiment rose to 92.6 in August, slightly above the median forecast of 92.4 in an Econoday survey of economists and the highest reading since February of this year. July’s result was revised slightly lower to 90.4 from 90.5.
Expectations improved as well, rising to 97.5 from a revised 96.7 in July (97.0), although the result was below the median forecast of 98.1.
Current conditions improved as well, rising to 87.9 from an unrevised 84.5 the previous month and exceeded the median Econoday forecast of 87.0. In previous months, the assessment of current conditions had generally been more subdued than the expectations component.
“Sentiment among German business leaders is continuing to improve,” said Ifo President Clements Fuest in a statement accompanying the release of the results, adding the “German economy is on the road to recovery.”
Ifo will release its Business Sentiment index for September on September 24 at 10:00am Central European time.