German positives suffer setback

Business confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, dropped for the third month in four in May as stagnating consumer spending and higher oil prices threatened to restrain an economic recovery.

The Munich-based Ifo institute said its confidence index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, declined to 96.1 from 96.3 in April.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted a reading of 96, according to the median of 38 forecasts. The benchmark DAX 30 stock index dropped as much as 1.5%.