Germany Business Confidence

Last Release

Mar 31, 2025

Actual

86.7

Units In

Points

85.3

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Apr 24, 2025

Time to Release

28 Days 7 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
109.8 Jan 1991	75.4 Apr 2020	96.89 Points	1991-2025	IFO Institute

In Germany, the IFO Business Climate Index measures entrepreneurs’ sentiment about current business situation and their expectations for the next 6 months. The survey is made by phone and covers 9,000 firms in manufacturing, the service sector, trade and construction. The Business Climate Balance is constructed as the difference between the percentage share of executives that are optimistic and the share that are pessimistic. This balance can take values between -100 (all responding firms assess their situation as poor and expect business to deteriorate) and +100 (all responding firms assessed their situation as good and expect an improvement in their business). For the calculation of the IFO Business Climate Index, the Balance is normalized to the average of a base year (currently 2015).

Latest Updates

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany rose to 86.7 in March 2025, marking its highest level since July and aligning with market expectations. Business sentiment improved as companies grew more optimistic about the months ahead (87.7 vs. 85.6 in February), following a historic debt deal to increase defense spending by easing strict rules and establishing a substantial infrastructure fund. Additionally, firms' assessment of the current business situation improved as well (85.7 vs. 85.0). Sentiment improved across all industries. Manufacturers (-16.6 vs. -21.9) and trade (-23.7 vs. -26.2) saw a notable shift toward less skepticism in their outlook. Service providers (-1.1 vs. -4.3) benefited primarily from growing optimism among architectural and engineering firms. Meanwhile, the construction sector (-24.6 vs. -27.4) showed gains driven by a more positive assessment of the current situation, though a lack of orders remained the industry's biggest challenge.