German IFO Business Climate Index improves further to 89.4 in April vs. 88.9 expected

• German IFO Business Climate Index surpasses estimates with 89.4 in April.
• IFO Current Economic Assessment improved to 88.9 in the reported month.

The headline German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 89.4 in April, way higher than the March reading of 87.9. The market forecast was for an 88.9 print.

Meanwhile, the Current Economic Assessment Index rose from 88.1 in March to 88.9 in the same period, beating estimates of 88.7.

The IFO Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months, improved to 89.9 in April vs. 87.7 seen in March while surpassing the expected 88.9 figure.

Market reaction to the German IFO Survey

EUR/USD fails to find inspiration from the upbeat German IFO survey. At the time of writing, the pair is trading 0.09% lower at 1.0688 amid resurgent US Dollar demand.

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.