Germany's influential Ifo business sentiment indicator inched up to 87.4 in January but was slightly below expectations as the Ifo head said it was too early to say Europe's largest economy was in an upturn.
The rise of the headline west German business climate index, to 87.4 from a revised 87.3 in December, ended seven consecutive months of decline, the Munich-based Ifo said today. December's figure had originally been 87.1.
Ifo reported modest improvements in both the assessment of current conditions, to 77.1 from a revised 76.9 in December, and expectations.
The Ifo index, based on a monthly survey of around 7,000 German firms, has a long record of heralding growth trends in Germany and is also seen as one of the key performance indicators for the euro zone.
