German Ifo business climate index drops further to 101.0 in Dec., missing estimates

The headline German Ifo business climate index came in at 101.0 for December, weaker than last month's 102.0 and missing consensus estimates pointing to a reading of 101.8. The current economic assessment also missed estimates and came in at 104.7 points in the reported month as compared to last month's 105.4 and 104.9 anticipated.

Meanwhile, the Ifo Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months, also fell short of consensus estimates by a big margin, arriving at 97.3 for December versus expectations of 98.3 and 98.7 recorded in November.

The headline IFO business climate index was rebased and recalibrated in April after the IFO research Institute changed series from the base year of 2000 to the base year of 2005 as of May 2011 and then changed series to include services as of April 2018. The survey now includes 9,000 monthly survey responses from firms in the manufacturing, service sector, trade and construction.
The positive economic growth anticipates bullish movements for the EUR, while a low reading is seen as negative (or bearish).