German business confidence rises :

German business confidence has risen from its lowest level in more than 20 years, a survey has indicated.

The April business index from the Ifo research institute rose to 83.7 points, up from the 82.2 recorded in March.

"Firms are no longer quite so dissatisfied with their current business situation than in the previous month," said Ifo boss
Hans-Werner Sinn.

On Thursday, Germany's leading economic think tanks forecast the country's economy would shrink by 6% this year.

This is a bigger contraction than is forecast for most of the world's major economies.

However, according to Mr Sinn, the latest Ifo survey shows that the outlook for the German economy is improving.

"With regard to the business outlook for the coming half year, the sceptical assessments have again been reduced somewhat. It
is thus likely that the decline in economic output will slow," he said.

The improvement in business sentiment was significantly better than analysts had expected.

Germany is Europe's biggest economy and the world's biggest exporter.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk