BERLIN: German business confidence rose for a fourth month as faster economic growth and optimism over European Central Bank stimulus outweighed fears of a worsening Greek crisis.
The Ifo institute’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, advanced to 106.8 in February from 106.7 in January. The median estimate of 37 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase to 107.7.
Growth in Europe’s largest economy is accelerating amid lower oil prices and a weaker euro, and Germany’s Bundesbank plans to increase its forecasts for 2015. With the ECB set to start buying 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month of debt to bolster the euro-area economy, the risk of a Greek default and exit from the union hasn’t weighed much on business sentiment.
The report signals that “German businesses never feared a full escalation of the Greek crisis or were at least not afraid of a Grexit,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa AG in Frankfurt. “Improved expectations signal a strong belief in the benefits of the ECB’s quantitative easing.”
A measure of current conditions dropped to 111.3 in February from 111.7 the previous month, the Ifo report showed. A gauge of expectations climbed to 102.5 from 102.
