BERLIN, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Business sentiment in Germany's service sector has risen to a new high in spite of Sunday's national election outcome, a study published on Tuesday by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research has found.
The closely-watched business confidence index for the sector conducted by the Munich-based institute rose by 0.1 points to 110.7 points in September. Although the 2,500 managers surveyed by Ifo downgraded their assessment of the current economic situation, they have upgraded their expectations for the coming half year for the fifth time in a row.
"Many firms are planning to hire more employees," Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement.
Advertising and architecture firms in particular were optimistic about their prospects for revenue growth and therefore announced their desire to increase personnel numbers.
