“They did not, they actually rose slightly”, Mr Wohlrabe said.
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Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe said the slowdown in the Chinese economy was not now dampening the confidence of German exporters.
Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of companies’ assessments of the current business environment and the outlook for the next six months.
BERLIN/PARIS, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Europe’s biggest economies are showing signs of resilience despite weakness overseas and the refugee crisis on their own doorstep, with firms in Germany and France expressing optimism about their prospects, surveys on Thursday showed. A measure for current conditions fell to 114 from 114.8.
The German labour office research institute said the arrival of large numbers of refugees could push up German unemployment next year by 70,000.
Analysts welcomed the renewed rise in the Ifo barometer. “And, of course, none of the surveys will yet have picked up the impact of the Volkswagen scandal”.
Business confidence in Germany may take a more serious hit from Volkswagen’s dramatic fall from grace that began last Friday with the revelation that Europe’s largest carmaker fitted diesel-powered vehicles with software that circumvented air-pollution controls.
Given the importance and weight of the auto sector, some observers are concerned about potential fallout for the German economy as a whole.
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For now, markets drew support from the upbeat Ifo survey, with Germany’s benchmark Dax stock index up 0.75 percent out outperforming markets in London and Paris. “When looking at the latest events, headwinds should have been blowing strongly in the face of German companies”, said Andreas Rees of UniCredit Economics.
