Retirement age raised to 67 by the lower house of German parliament 9. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot Today the lower house of German parliament by a clear majority vote of 408 to 169 decided to raise the retirement age to 67 years. This new measure is to take effect gradually starting in 2012 and will be completed in 2029. There is one exception to the new rule: Everyone who has made contributions …
German exports up by 13.4 percent in January 9. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot In the January of 2007 Germany exported goods to the value of 77.5 billion Euros whereas the value of imported goods amounted to 61.4 billion Euros. Thus, German exports and imports increased by 13.4% and 9.6% respectively in January 2007 as compared to January one year ago. However, the picture is less positive, if one …
More than 80 percent think about quitting their jobs 9. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot A current survey by the StepStone job portal draws a bleak picture of the loyalty of German specialists and executive managers to their companies: 42% intend to quit their jobs in the current year! On top of this, an additional 40% are at least considering such a step. Only 18% are satisfied with their jobs.
Globalisation provides opportunities to medium-sized hotel business 7. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot The president of the tourism commission of the lower house of German parliament, Mrs. Marlene Mortler, thinks that globalisation provides both challenges and opportunities to the medium-sized hotel business in Germany. “The quicker and better SMEs adapt to special cultural features, the bigger will be the share of the gains that can be made in …
International tourism exhibition started in Berlin today 7. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot From today until March 11th you are invited to visit the International Tourism Exhibition in Berlin. About 11.000 exhibitors from 184 countries will present their products and services from the world of tourism at this trade fair. This high number of participation reflects the situation of the booming tourism industry. To the general public the …
Bavarian state library shares knowledge with the world 7. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot And also with Google. As the first library in Germany the State Library of Bavaria in Munich co-operates with Google in the latter’s book project. Google has the permission to scan one million out of the ten million books of the Bavarian State Library and make them available on the internet.
Economic and consumer trends in the year 2025 7. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot Quite often trend forecasts are not even worth the paper on which they are written. However, the Swiss Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut (GDI) is well renowned in the world of business for the quality of its forecasts. For this reason, one should have a closer look at the latest GDI trend radar. Who is going to …
Investors will be paid back billions after verdict of European Court of Justice 6. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot Until the year 2001 German investors could credit the corporation tax paid by their company against their own shareholder’s income tax only in those cases in which these companies were based in Germany. Against this legal action was brought by the heirs of an investor at a tax court in Cologne. The Cologne court passed …
Hotel industry with gains of more than 10 percent 6. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot For the German hotel business the year 2006 was a very successful one. According to the hotel benchmark data base by Deloitte, in 2006 RevPAR increased by 10.7% to an average of 55 Euros. Thus, for the first time since the year 2000 there was a double digit annual growth rate which is a material …
Factoring more and more a source of financing to SMEs 5. March 2007 by Thomas Jannot If they are denied a bank loan or if such a loan is too expensive, factoring in many cases is a financing alternative used by an ever increasing number of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The factoring volume regarding SMEs amounted to about 1.7 billion Euros in the year 2006 which is approximately 30% more …