German Business Confidence Rises For A Third Month
German business confidence resumed its rise for a third month in Jan. as the measures taken by European officials last year and expectations Germany will gather momentum in 2013 managed to restore confidence in the region`s biggest economy.
IFO business climate soared to 104.2 this month from 102.4 last month, compared with forecasts of 103.0.
Current assessment gauge also rose to 108.0 from 107.1 while expectations measure edged up to 100.5 from 98.0.
Data released this week showed that German ZEW survey economic sentiment leaped to 2 ½ year high to 31.5 this month from a prior of 6.9.
Meanwhile, there are some confidence that the three-year-old debt crisis could be abating after the decisions made by European finance ministers last year as reached an agreement with the IMF to unlock Greece`s next aid tranche on four installments starting from December and ending in March 2013, where they gave the green light to a disbursement of 9.2 billion euros during their meeting this week.
Another critical outcome of the EU finance ministers gathering at the end of last year was making the ECB as chief supervisor of euro zone banks which is deemed a step of a paramount importance as it paves the way for a strong European banking union.
Regarding fundamentals, German PMI manufacturing for Jan. eased contraction to 48.8 from 46.0, whereas services recorded a widening expansion to 55.3 from the prior of 52.0.
In fact, the progress seen in the two major sectors moves in line with the announcements of Draghi this week as he said the worst of the debt crisis may be over, stating the “darkest clouds” have lifted.