The Ifo Institute's Economic Climate Index for the business climate in Germany's automotive industry improved significantly during last January.

The index rose to minus 6.3 points, after being minus 15.8 points in December.

Specialist expert Anita Völfl said today, Thursday: "Companies in the German automotive industry assess their current business situation more positively than at the end of 2023, and they look to the coming months especially with a clearly more optimistic outlook than was observed at the end of 2023."

She added that global sales (for this sector) increased during the past year, noting that experts expect important sales markets with steady growth for this year.

She pointed out that when evaluating the business situation, positive assessments outweighed negative assessments.

She added: "Some companies continue to evaluate the order situation as unsatisfactory, capacity utilization has declined, and there is an increasing shortage of skilled workers."