ifo Business Climate Eastern Germany: Index Rises (March 2023)

Sentiment among companies in eastern Germany improved slightly in March. The ifo Business Climate Index for the entire regional economy rose to 95.4 points, up from 94.8 points in February. The companies surveyed adjusted their assessments of the current situation slightly downward, while their outlook for the next six months improved somewhat.

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In eastern German manufacturing, the business climate cooled down a little in March. The manufacturing companies surveyed assessed the business situation as slightly less positive than in the previous month. Their outlook improved marginally.

In the eastern German service sector, sentiment rose substantially in March. Assessments of the current situation and business expectations both improved, the increase in expectations being stronger.

In eastern German trade, the barometer of business sentiment saw a slight drop in March. Compared to the previous month, the businesses surveyed assessed current business as slightly less positive. At the same time, they raised their expectations for the next six months marginally.

In eastern German construction, the business climate turned much brighter in March. The main reason for this was a major improvement in business expectations. Participating construction companies also reported a marginal improvement in their assessments of the current situation.

Joachim Ragnitz and Marcel Thum
Executive Directors, Dresden Branch of the ifo Institute

ifo Business Climate in Eastern Germany, March 2023

ifo Business Climate Eastern Germany

(Index, 2015 = 100, seasonally adjusted)

	03/22	04/22	05/22	06/22	07/22	08/22	09/22	10/22	11/22	12/22	01/23	02/23	03/23
Climate	92.8	94.5	94.6	94.2	92.4	91.5	85.8	86.4	89.2	91.9	92.6	94.8	95.4
Situation	98.2	98.9	101.0	101.4	100.6	99.0	94.4	93.2	96.0	97.5	97.1	99.3	99.2
Expectations	87.7	90.3	88.6	87.5	84.9	84.5	78.0	80.0	83.0	86.7	88.2	90.4	91.7

Source: ifo Business Survey.
© ifo Institute

ifo Business Climate Eastern Germany

(Index, 2015 = 100, seasonally adjusted)

	03/22	04/22	05/22	06/22	07/22	08/22	09/22	10/22	11/22	12/22	01/23	02/23	03/23
Climate	92.8	94.5	94.6	94.2	92.4	91.5	85.8	86.4	89.2	91.9	92.6	94.8	95.4
Situation	98.2	98.9	101.0	101.4	100.6	99.0	94.4	93.2	96.0	97.5	97.1	99.3	99.2
Expectations	87.7	90.3	88.6	87.5	84.9	84.5	78.0	80.0	83.0	86.7	88.2	90.4	91.7

Source: ifo Business Survey.
© ifo Institute

The ifo Business Climate Eastern Germany is based on approx. 1,700 monthly survey responses from firms in manufacturing, construction, wholesale, and retail. The firms are asked to give their assessments of the current business situation and their expectations for the next six months. They can characterize their situation as “good,” “satisfactory,” or “poor” and their business expectations for the next six months as “more favorable,” “unchanged,” or “more unfavorable.” The balance value of the current business situation is the difference of the percentages of the responses “good” and “poor”; the balance value of the expectations is the difference of the percentages of the responses “more favorable” and “more unfavorable.” The business climate is a transformed mean of the balances of the business situation and the expectations. For the purpose of calculating the index values, the transformed balances are all normalized to the average of the year 2015.