Turkey promotes German investment 31. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot A new contact for German companies planning investments in Turkey has been working since the beginning of 2008. The German office of the “Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey” (ISPAT) is directly subordinate to the Turkish Prime Minister. The representative of German businesses in Turkey is Mr. Michael Maasmeier, an entrepreneur from Cologne and …
Consumer prices increased by 3.1 percent 31. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to provisional calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, consumer prices in Germany increased by 3.1% in March this year as compared to March 2007. Thus, the annual increase in consumer prices is even steeper than in February (+2.8%). The month-to-month increase from February to March this year amounted to +0.5%.
Financial crisis reduces liquidity of German businesses 28. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot The crisis on global financial markets is now also impairing the liquidity of German companies. In contrast to the development in recent years, this year the number of insolvencies is just slightly decreasing. According to the German association of collection agencies (BDIU), the number of insolvencies is expected to fall to 28.500 in the year …
Turnover in the service sector further increased 28. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot The fourth quarter 2007 was a good one for the service sector. According to provisional estimates by the Federal Statistical Office, turnover increased by 6.2% in nominal figures as compared to the same quarter in the year 2006. In comparison with the third quarter last year, turnover increased by 2.9% after adjustments for calendar and …
Orders received by industry in Eurozone increase by 2 percent 27. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the number of orders received by industry in the Eurozone (EZ15) increased by 2.0% in January 2008 as compared to December last year. With regard to the EU27, here the order volume decreased by 1.0% on the previous month in January 2008.
SMEs want to strengthen controlling 26. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot A study called “Vertriebsorientiertes Erfolgsmanagement” carried out by the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) revealed that small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) from the field of information technology and telecommunications have to catch up the most with regard to sales controlling. According to the findings of this study, 78% of SMEs …
Much more orders received by the building industry in January 26. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot January was a good month for the construction industry (companies employing at least 20 people). There were 10.7% more orders in January this year than in January last year. In structural engineering orders increased by 13.5% and in civil engineering by 7.4%. These figures were officially communicated by the Federal Statistical Office yesterday.
Less vacancies in the fourth quarter 2007 25. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot In the fourth quarter of 2007 there were 1.22 million vacancies in Germany, according to the IAB institute. According to the IAB experts from Nuremberg, the demand for workforce slightly decreased both with regard to the fourth quarter 2006 as well as the third quarter in 2007. Each year the IAB interviews companies and registers …
Apply for German internet award now! 25. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot Under the slogan “Mittelstand interaktiv” the German internet award this year takes places for the ninth time. At the end of this year’s competition the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media, BITKOM, will award „innovative approaches which were tried and tested in practice“. The three winners will receive price money to the …
Entrepreneurs call for simplified EU patent application procedure 24. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot “Europe’s 500“, which is an association of those European companies with the biggest growth, calls on the EU Commission and the EU member states to introduce a simplified and centralized European patent application procedure. Currently inventors have to pass through 27 different patenting procedures and have to fill in blanks in many languages according to …