Germany Business Confidence

Last Release

Dec 31, 2024

Actual

84.7

Units In

Points

85.6

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Jan 27, 2025

Time to Release

1 Months 8 Days 9 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
109.8 Jan 1991	75.4 Apr 2020	96.98 Points	1991-2024	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 decreased for a second month to 84.7 in December 2024, the lowest level since May 2020, compared to a downwardly revised 85.6 in November and forecasts of 85.6. The sub-index for business expectations declined sharply to 84.4 from 87 but the current conditions gauge improved to 85.1 from 84.3. "The weakness of the German economy has become chronic", the Ifo reported. Business sentiment has fallen considerably in the manufacturing and the services sector and has declined for retailers. In contrast, sentiment improved for the construction industry.