Economics

German business confidence ‘not falling apart, but not stabilising’: report

Germany is the only large eurozone country whose output is forecast to drop this year

Support for chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has dropped to a record low as the economy suffers

Germany’s business outlook improved slightly in September, while remaining at historically low levels as the economy faces another contraction this quarter.

An expectations gauge released by the IFO Institute ticked up to 82.9 from 82.7 in August, a touch worse than economists had estimated in a Bloomberg poll. An index of current conditions also slipped.

“It’s not falling apart but it’s not stabilising,” the IFO’s president Clemens Fuest told Bloomberg TV. “The Germany economy has ...