BERLIN (AP) – Business confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has dropped unexpectedly as managers’ assessment of both their current and future situations darkened following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, a survey showed Thursday.
The Ifo institute’s confidence index fell to 106.2 points for August from 108.3 in July. Economists had predicted a slight increase to 108.5.
The sharpest monthly decline in more than four years took the index to its lowest level since December 2014. It follows a much smaller decline in July immediately following Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
The Ifo measured a drop in confidence in most sectors it surveyed, though not in construction and services.
Timo Wollmershaeuser, an economic expert with the Ifo, told n-tv television that the last two months’ movement “taken together is a mirror image of the Brexit vote.”