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Business confidence falls for sixth month

Published: 24 Oct 12 10:51 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121024-45745.html

The eurozone crisis is increasingly hitting Germany, Europe's top economy, data suggested on Wednesday with business confidence falling for the sixth month in a row to the lowest level since February 2010.

The Ifo economic institute's closely watched business climate index dropped to 100.0 points in October from 101.4 points in September, disappointing analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires who had expected a slight rise.

The index "fell in October for the sixth time in succession. Companies again expressed growing dissatisfaction with their current business situation," said Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn.

"The clouds over the German economy are darkening," he warned.

Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of companies' assessments of their current business and the outlook for the next six months.

The sub-index measuring current business dropped to 107.3 in October, its lowest level since June 2010, and the outlook sub-index was unchanged at 93.2 points.

Unlike many of its neighbours, Germany has shown strong resistance to the debt crisis that has swept through the 17-country bloc, relying on its powerful export motor to keep the economy humming.

It notched up modest growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter while the eurozone as a whole contracted by 0.2 percent.

But even the German powerhouse has been unable to resist forever and a raft of economic data recently has suggested the economy is beginning to falter.

AFP/jcw

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

13:19 October 24, 2012 by smart2012
not unexpected and to be addressed to Verkel strategy.. Wel done Verkel! :-)
18:52 October 24, 2012 by aletheia93
the debt in the eurozone has reached 90 percent of GDP. The eurozone and the eu is just unsustainable. this is not pesimism this is realism.
18:54 October 24, 2012 by IchBinKönig
Isn't it all just so wonderful!? Smart2012's dream in action. Of course, he believes that much much more money should have been sent by the German taxpayer long ago. Of course, he does not explain how exactly that would have changed anything about how the debt was created in the first place. According to the smart one, all that is needed is more money down the hole, all will be well.
22:31 October 24, 2012 by smart2012
Take Greece: debt was created to finance German and French company businesses (guns, tanks, trains, telekom) and german banks (greece trusted investements of german banks, then in 2008 all fell down). Take Spain, bubble in Spain was financed by German banks and investors (u remember that Spain was booming???).. Too easy always to see a side of the coin mr king... :)
23:44 October 24, 2012 by aletheia93
this eu thing is an illusion. Union requires unity. There will never be unity in Europe. Each country, yes country !!! has different interests.

P.S. Merkel is the last revenge of Honecker ;)
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