German Ifo business climate index eases to 103.7 in September, beats estimates

The headline German Ifo business climate climbed to 103.7 in September, a tad weaker than last month's 103.8 but surpassed the consensus estimates pointing to a downtick to 103.2. Meanwhile, the current economic assessment also bettered estimates, arriving at 106.4 points in the reported month as compared to last month's 106.4 and 106.1 anticipated.

The Ifo Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months beat expectations, arrived at 101.0 for September versus expectations of 100.2 and 101.2 recorded in August.

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 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).