German economy's sentiment at a glance at the start of 2026

How are the businesses doing, and are their outlooks optimistic or pessimistic? The DIHK Sentiment Index visualizes the current situation and assessments. With a value of 95.9, it has slightly improved at the start of 2026 but still does not signal confidence.

DIHK Sentiment Index

The DIHK Sentiment Index is the geometric mean of the Business Situation Index and the Business Expectations Index.

The Business Situation Index is calculated as 100 plus the percentage of companies reporting a good business situation minus the percentage of companies reporting a poor business situation.

The Business Expectations Index is calculated as 100 plus the percentage of companies with positive business expectations minus the percentage of companies with negative ones.

Values above 100 indicate that companies predominantly report good business situations or positive expectations, and vice versa.

Here you can trace how the DIHK Sentiment Index has developed since 2008:

(only available in German)