The mood in the East German economy continues to decline. As the ifo Institute announced on Tuesday in Dresden, the business climate index fell from 90.6 points to 88.6 points in December. The economy assesses its current situation worse and its expectations for the next few months have also fallen significantly.
According to the institute, the business climate in the service sector cooled noticeably. Accordingly, the service companies surveyed significantly lowered both their assessment of the current business situation and their business expectations.
The business climate index also fell significantly in December. While the development in wholesale trade was drastically worse compared to the previous month, the mood among retail companies only deteriorated slightly.
The situation in the construction industry was assessed similarly. Here too, the business climate cooled down in December. Accordingly, the construction companies surveyed rated their current business situation as slightly worse than in November. They were also noticeably more pessimistic about their future business development.
The Ifo business climate for Eastern Germany is based on around 1,700 monthly reports from companies in the manufacturing, service, retail and construction industries. You are asked to assess your current business situation and share your expectations for the next six months.(dpa)