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Apr 24, 2020, 1:47 PM GMT
#Economy

The German Business Climate Outlook at Its Lowest Level on Record

According to the ifo institute, in April the German Business Climate Index tumbled to 74.3 points, which is its lowest measurement since the institute started compiling the business climate index.

The findings of the report demonstrated that concerns over the impact of the coronavirus fallout on the German economy exceeded the initial expectations.

The consensus forecasts were projecting a drop in the Business Climate Index from last month's downwardly revised 85.9 points to 79.8. However, the size of the economic hit is apparently more significant than initially thought.

The 6.1-point drop is the most considerable monthly decline to date, which underpins the severity of the economic contraction that is being caused by the temporary closedowns of German firms and businesses' operations.

Germany Business Climate

The news came just a day after it was announced that the German Manufacturing and Services PMI numbers for March also missed their targets, underscoring an across the board deterioration of the general economic activity in the Eurozone's largest economy.

The biggest glimmer of hope for Germany's economy at present is the fact that the Government has already allowed some businesses to resume operations.

The market perceived this as the first major step towards the economy's gradual reopening, which some forward-looking experts anticipate to mitigate the German business climate's rate of depreciation.

The DAX index tumbled upon the release of the ifo institute's data. It is currently threading at around -0.80 per cent prior to the start of Friday's trading session in the US.

DAX vs EU50 2H Comparison Chart