Expensive steel leads to soaring production costs 6. May 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the NTC/BME purchase manager index (edition 5/08), the activity of German industrial enterprises fell significantly in April. This index amounted to 53.6 points which is 1.5 points less than in March. The reason for this is a sharp increase in production costs due to high steel prices and a strong demand for energy …
Less turnover in retail sale in March 5. May 2008 by Thomas Jannot Following falling turnover in the wholesale trade business the German retail trade business registered less business activity as well. According to preliminary figures provided by the Federal Statistical Office, the German retail trade business generated 3.7% and 6.3% less turnover in nominal and real terms respectively in March 2008 as compared to March last year. …
80 percent of companies make use of fast internet 5. May 2008 by Thomas Jannot In the year 2006 the percentage of German companies with internet broadband access amounted to just 73%. Only one year later, in 2007, this figure had already increased to 80%. Thus, Germany in this respect is above the EU average figure of 78%. Therefore, according to the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New …
Turnover in wholesale trade down by 4.6 percent in March 4. May 2008 by Thomas Jannot In March this year the German whole sale trade generated 1.3% more turnover in nominal terms and 4.6% less in real terms as compared to March 2007. In comparison with February this year turnover fell by 0.6% and 1.4% in nominal and real figures after adjustments for season and calendar, as was revealed through provisional …
Consumers avoiding energy wasting devices 30. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the Forsa opinion research institute, German consumers are paying more and more attention to energy consumption when they buy high-tech devices. For 41% of Germans economical energy consumption is an important factor in the choice of computers, monitors, printers and other high-tech products. Thus, energy consumption is almost as important as the technical …
Consumer prices increased less in April 30. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot In April 2008 consumer prices increased less than in March this year. As was reported by the Federal Statistical Office, the annual inflation rate in April will presumably amount to 2.4%. In March this year the rate had been 3.1%. In the period between March and April consumer prices even fell by an estimated 0.2%.
SME appreciate further training 29. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot Small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) invest more and more in the further training of their employees, as was revealed by a survey carried out by the TechConsult market research company among 400 German businesses. 89% of interviewees are already offering their employees particular training courses. One quarter of managing directors think that computer and internet …
Mobile internet access booming in businesses 28. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot The number of businesses having mobile internet access more than tripled in the year 2007 in comparison with the year 2006. As was recently reported by the Federal Statistical Office, 21% of companies made use of mobile internet access in the year 2007. In 2006 this percentage had been 6% only.
Germany ranks seventh with regard to labour costs 24. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot In the year 2007 private German companies paid 29.10 Euros per working hour. Thus, in Europe German labour costs rank 7the behind Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands. Denmark had the highest costs with 35.00 Euros per hour while in Bulgaria these costs were lowest with 2.10 Euros. This was revealed through calculations …
Lack of 70,000 engineers costs 7 billion Euros 24. April 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the Association of German Engineers (VDI), about 70,000 vacancies for engineers could not be staffed in the year 2007. This is an increase of by 45% as compared to the year 2006. The VDI estimates that this huge lack of experts costs the German economy more than 7 billion Euros per year. These …