China slowdown not hurting German export sentiment: Ifo economist

[BERLIN] The slowdown in the Chinese economy is not currently dampening the confidence of German exporters, Ifo economist Klaus Wohlrabe told Reuters on Thursday.

"We had expected that the export expectations of industry would have perhaps fallen a bit. They did not, they actually rose slightly," Mr Wohlrabe said.

Mr Wohlrabe said the scandal around Volkswagen, which has admitted to deliberately falsifying US diesel emissions tests, broke too late to be reflected in the latest Ifo survey, with any negative fallout having an impact on next month's result.

He also said that the influx of thousands of refugees into Germany in recent weeks had boosted the retail sector, in particular sales of groceries, with supermarkets seeing a clear rise in turnover that was expected to continue.

REUTERS