German business confidence improved for a third straight month in January to a six-month high as expectations of firms and current assessment brightened in January, results of the IfO business climate survey showed Monday.
The business confidence index rose to 106.7 in January from 105.5 in December, exceeding the 106.4 reading expected by economists. It was the highest score since July 2014.
"The roller-coaster ride of German economic data could still last for a while. The conciliatory end of the year 2014, with an estimated annual growth rate of 1.5 percent, could take turns with rather disappointing December data," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa, said.
"Let's not forget that December was yet another month, strongly affected by the timing of vacation. Luckily, the year 2015 should be less sensitive to seasonal fluctuations," he added.
The IfO said that the German economy has made a good start to the year.
The current assessment index, a measure of current business conditions, climbed to 111.7 from 109.8, which topped the 110.8 consensus estimate.
Meanwhile, the expectations index came in less-than-expected in January at 102 versus 102.5 expected by economists. However, this was more than the 101.3 index in December.
Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics, pointed out that after falling for much of last year, the business climate index still doesn't point to a strong recovery.
Business climate in the manufacturing sector improved for the third consecutive month and that of wholesaling continued to rise. However, the business climate indicator for the construction sector dropped in January.
"All in all, almost everything is put in place for another strong year of the German economy. At least in a little perfect and linear world. However, the aftermath of the Greek elections will show that perfect and linear worlds do not exist," Brzeski said.
In Greece, the anti-austerity Syriza party emerged the winner in the snap election on Sunday. The party led by Alexis Tsipras had promised to end austerity, renegotiate the country's government debt and possible extension of the bailout program.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.