German IFO Business Climate Index ticks higher to 88.6 in December vs. 87.2 expected

• German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 88.6 in December.
• IFO Current Economic Assessment for Germany rose to 94.4 this month.
• December German IFO Expectations Index improved to 83.2.

The headline German IFO Business Climate Index climbed to 88.6 in December versus the previous reading of 86.3 and the forecast of 87.2.

Meanwhile, the Current Economic Assessment improved to 94.4 points in the reported month as against November's 93.1 and 93.5 expected.

The IFO Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months, rose to 83.2 in December from the previous month’s 80.0 and against the estimates of 82.0.

Market reaction

EUR/USD is little changed on the upbeat German IFO survey. At the time of writing, the pair is trading at 1.0639, up 0.52% on the day.

About German IFO

The headline IFO business climate index was rebased and recalibrated in April after the IFO Research Institute changed the series from the base year of 2000 to the base year of 2005 as of May 2011 and then changed the 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.