BERLIN, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The mood among German corporate leaders continued to weaken as the Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) business climate index fell from 99.2 to 97.9 points in May, the German institute revealed on Thursday.

"The German economy continues to lack momentum," commented Ifo president Clemens Fuest.

At 97.9 points in May, the Ifo index value had reached its lowest level since the end of 2014, according to the German institute.

In particular, the assessment of Germany's current economic situation at 100.6 points was significantly worse than in the previous month when it stood at 103.4 points.

German business expectations for the next six months remained constant at 95.3 points, according to Ifo.

"One bright spot this month is the chemical industry", where optimism had returned following a recent pessimistic outlook, said Fuest.

In the German service sector, however, the business climate "has suffered a significant setback", said Fuest, dropping to 20.9 points in May compared to 26.4 points for the previous month.

The last time this indicator in the German service industry fell so sharply was in April 2013, the German economic institute announced.

According to Ifo, the business climate index for the German trade sector dropped from 7.1 points in April to 5.4 points in May, which "was attributable to developments in wholesale".

In contrast, German retailers were much more satisfied with their current situation and also revised their outlook for the coming months upwards.

On Thursday, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) confirmed its most recent flash estimate that German gross domestic product (GDP) had increased by 0.4 percent in Q1 of 2019 compared to the previous quarter.

Growth of German GDP had stagnated in the final quarter of last year after shrinking by 0.2 percent in the third quarter of 2018, according to Destatis.