REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
German Chancellor and leader of the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU) Angela Merkel gestures before a CDU party board meeting in Berlin September 23, 2013, the day after the German general election. German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces the daunting prospect of persuading her centre-left rivals to keep her in power after her conservatives notched up their best election result in more than two decades but fell short of an absolute majority.
Analysts had expected the "economic sentiment" part of the index to rise just out of negative territory for November, to 0.5, from -3.6 in October.
In reality, it hit 11.5. Last month was the first in negative territory for nearly two years, but this month's figure has soared well away from zero.
The figures come after Germany's Q3 GDP growth was confirmed at a dismal 0.1%, barely avoiding a technical recession.