Economy > Growth competitiveness score: Countries Compared

Germany’s Ifo Group, an economic consulting and research organization, produces a monthly index that measures German business sentiment about the economy and expectations for the future. More than 7,000 German businesses assess the current business climate and their expectations for the next six months. The weighted responses create an index showing the level of optimism and pessimism and how many respondents gave the highest and lowest ratings. <p>In 171 reports since 1991, future expectations were positive 43 times, while current situation assessments were optimistic 15 times. Assessments of the current situation have been positive only once since February 1992. <p>Recently, the pessimism has been justified. Germany’s economy grew 0.8 percent in 2001, 0.1 percent in 2002, negative 0.1 percent in 2003, and 1.7 percent in 2004. Recently, the European Commission estimated growth in the EU to be 1.6 percent in 2005, with Germany's economy expected to grow just 0.8 percent.