German IFO Business Climate Index jumps to 87.8 in March vs. 86.0 expected

• German IFO Business Climate Index beat estimates with 87.8 in March.
• IFO Current Economic Assessment improved to 87.5 in the reported month.

The headline German IFO Business Climate Index arrived at 87.8 in March, higher than the February reading of 85.5, much above the market consensus of 86.0.

Meanwhile, the Current Economic Assessment Index rose from 86.9 in February to 88.1 in the reported month, beating expectations of 86.8.

The IFO Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months, edged higher to 87.5 in March vs. 84.1 recorded in the previous month while surpassing the expected 84.7 figure.

Market reaction to the German IFO Survey

EUR/USD defends the 1.0800 level on the upbeat German IFO survey. At the time of writing, the pair is trading 0.40% lower at 1.0815.

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 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.