German Business Confidence Strengthens As Outlook Brighten

- Ifo business climate rises to 89.9 versus 89.0 forecast

- Current conditions improve to 89.5 from 88.5

- Manufacturing expectations strengthen

- Economist sees upside risk to Q3 growth prospects

By Harry Daniels

LiveSquawk News

@HarryDaniels71

15:00 GMT | 24 September 2026

German firms remained relatively upbeat about the economic outlook in September, echoing the more positive signals from this week’s S&P Global PMI surveys.

The Ifo Institute said Thursday that its headline business climate index rose to 89.9 in September from 88.8 in August, beating the consensus forecast of 89.0.

Companies’ assessment of current conditions also improved, with the index rising to 89.5 from 88.5, ahead of expectations for 89.0.

Source: ifo Institute
Sector breakdown

Across the sectors, sentiment in manufacturing improved, driven by a significant rise in expectations, particularly among electrical equipment manufacturers.

Sentiment in the services sector also turned positive again, reflecting greater satisfaction with current business conditions alongside improved expectations.

Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics, said that at face value the latest reading was consistent with GDP growth of 0.5% q/q in Q3.

“In practice, we doubt that the GDP numbers will be that strong, but along with other surveys including the PMIs released yesterday, the Ifo suggests there are upside risks to our Q3 forecast of 0.1% expansion.”

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