BERLIN, Jan 27 - German business confidence rose more than expected in January, as executives' assessment of current conditions improved, the influential Ifo economic research institute said on Tuesday. Ifo said its western German business climate index, one of Europe's most closely watched gauges of economic activity, rose for a ninth straight month, to 97.4, the highest since January 2001, from an upwardly revised 96.9 in December. Economists polled by last week had predicted an increase to 97.0 . The index peaked at an all-time high of 107.4 in November 1990, shortly after German reunification. The Munich-based think tank, which polls about 7,000 firms each month, said January's improvement was "solely due to a more favourable assessment of the current business situation." "The business climate improvement was largely boosted by the manufacturing sector but also, to a lesser extent, by the construction industry," Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn said.
"The renewed improvement in the business climate index in western and in eastern Germany supports the forecast of the Ifo institute that the economic recovery will continue," he added. Companies' assessment of current conditions rose to 84.3, from 83.3 in December, Ifo said. Future expectations held at December's upwardly revised level of 111.2. The institute's index of business confidence for eastern Germany rose to 105.4, from an upwardly revised 104.7, as expectations for the future improved and the assessment of current conditions deteriorated.//www.reuters.com