Ifo Business Climate in Germany

The ifo Geschäftsklimaindex (ifo Business Climate) is Germany's benchmark business survey: around 9,000 firms in manufacturing, services, trade and construction assess their current situation and their expectations for the next six months. It is expressed as an index with 2015=100 and seasonally adjusted. This page includes the three series: the climate (headline), expectations and the assessment of the current situation.

The climate index is the geometric mean of the transformed balances of two components: the assessment of the current situation and expectations for the next six months. The ifo institute compiles the series from firms' monthly responses and releases them seasonally adjusted on a 2015=100 base.

It is probably the most closely watched leading indicator of the German economy and moves the euro and European equities. The expectations component tends to be the best cyclical bellwether, so markets track it to gauge the pulse of the euro area's largest economy.

It is revised slightly through the seasonal adjustment process as new responses come in. It is also a sentiment survey, capturing firms' perceptions rather than activity actually carried out, so it can diverge from the hard data in the short term.