BERLIN: German business confidence continues its rising trend in August, according to a key economic index released on Wednesday.
The Ifo's closely watched business sentiment indicator rose for the fifth straight month to 90.5 in August with the biggest jump since the index was created in 1991, and experts said even better figures were to come.
The Ifo institute based in Munich released its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 German executives, increased to 90.5 from 87.4 in July, the fifth consecutive increase. It was the highest since September last year and it was better than the previous expectation of local media, that was 89.
Business confidence has seen increasing in manufacturing, wholesaling and construction sectors and but they no longer expect a worsening in the coming half year, said Ifo institute.
The increase of business confidence echoed the increasing optimistic atmosphere about German economy recent days since Germany's economy unexpectedly expanded 0.3 percent in the second quarter.
"The German economy is on a slow recovery from its recession," said Ifo chief Hans-Werner Sinn.
Another poll, published by Stern magazine on Wednesday, showed that 39 percent of people thought the worst of the economic crisis was over, while one year ago only 12 percent holding such opinion.
