Figures released this morning show that German business confidence deteriorated again in March as doubts grew about the outlook for recovery in the euro zone's biggest economy.
The Ifo economic research institute's business climate index fell for the second month in a row in March, falling by one full point to 95.4 points.
Analysts had been expecting the index - a measure of industrial confidence - to decline by only 0.4 point in March from February.
Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn said the bombings in Madrid on March 11 had not had any noticeable additional effect on already fading confidence in Germany.
'The deterioration in March is not a temporary one-off development,' Sinn said. 'Weak domestic demand is continuing to make the economy as a whole sick. Concerns are growing about how the economy will develop in future,' he said.
Ifo polls around 7,000 companies about their assessment of current business and their expectations for the next six months.
The current sentiment figure fell to 92.1 points in March from 92.6 points in February, the first decline in six months. Companies also appeared to be a lot less confident about the six-month outlook, with the expectations sub-index sliding to 98.9 points this month from 100.3 points in February.
