German IFO Business Climate Index holds steady at 85.7 in September vs. 85.2 expected

• German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 85.7 in September.
• IFO Current Economic Assessment Index edged lower to 88.7.

The headline German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 85.7 in September, matching the August print. This reading came in slightly better than the market expectation of 85.2.

The Current Economic Assessment edged lower to 88.7 from 89.0 in the same period, while the Expectations Index, which indicates firms’ projections for the next six months, improved modestly to 82.9 from 82.6.

Market reaction

The EUR/USD pair showed no immediate reaction to this report and was last seen trading modestly lower on the day at 1.0640.

About German IFO

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.