| 1 | BERLIN - Business confidence in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has risen unexpectedly this month as worries over Greece have subsided, a closely watched survey showed Monday. |
| 2 | The Ifo think tank's monthly confidence index increased to 108 points for July from 107.5 in June. |
| 3 | Economists had expected a slight decline to 107.2, which would have been a third consecutive drop. |
| 4 | Ifo said that managers' assessment of their current situation and their outlook for the next six months both improved, defying expectations that they would slip. |
| 5 | The institute's president, Hans-Werner Sinn, said in a statement that "the recent easing of the Greece situation contributed to stronger sentiment in the German economy." |
| 6 | A preliminary agreement earlier this month on a new bailout for debt-laden Greece dampened fears of a potentially disruptive Greek exit from the 19-nation euro currency, though a full deal still has to be hammered out. |
| 7 | The German economy has been helped lately by low unemployment and increasing domestic demand, and has been growing even as other European countries struggle. |
| 8 | It is still being bolstered by a weak euro exchange rate and low energy prices, said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa in Frankfurt. |
| 9 | "Even if the dose has been reduced somewhat, the German economy is still on steroids," he added. |
| 10 | Risks looking ahead include longer-than-expected periods of weakness of the U.S. and the Chinese economies, both of which are major German export destinations, and a possible new flaring of the Greek crisis, he said. |
| 11 | Ifo polls around 7,000 managers each month on their assessment of the economy. |