German IFO Business Climate Index plunges to 90.8 in March, a big miss.

• German IFO Business Climate Index came in at 90.8 in March.
• IFO Current Economic Assessment fell to 97.1 this month.
• March German IFO Expectations Index arrived at 85.1.

The headline German IFO Business Climate Index slumped to 90.8 in March versus last month's 98.5 and the consensus estimates of 94.2.

Meanwhile, the Current Economic Assessment dropped to 97.1 points in the reported month as compared to last month's 98.6 and 96.5 anticipated.

The IFO Expectations Index – indicating firms’ projections for the next six months, worsened to 85.1 in March from the previous month’s 98.4 reading and much better than the market expectations of 92.0.

more to come ...

About German IFO

The headline IFO business climate index was rebased and recalibrated in April after the IFO research Institute changed 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.