Germany catching up with leaders of innovation 29. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot Judging by what was announced by the “Innovation Indicator 2007″ published by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Germany is close to the top of the list of most innovative countries. According to the study, Germany is in 8th position among 17 selected European and non-European countries. Even though last year Germany came 7th, …
Internet becomes more and more popular for dealing with public authorities 29. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot More and more German companies make use of the possibility to deal online with public authorities. As was communicated by the Federal Statistical Office, about 49% of companies with internet access resorted to online services provided by public authorities. This is an increase of 18 percent as compared to the previous year. Most of the …
Consumer prices up by 3 percent 28. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot As was reported by the German Federal Statistical Office the German consumer price index will probably increase to 3.0% in November 2007 as compared to November last year. This is the biggest increase since February 1994. Last month the inflation rate had been just 2.4%. These figures are provisional for the time being.
Business climate index for China moderately optimistic 28. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot The EU´s Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China has published its annual business climate index in co-operation with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. This index is based on the interviewing of more than 200 European companies operating in China. More than 80% are active in China in order to gain market entry and to win …
Flight bookings are main factor for online success in the travel industry 27. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot In 2007 Germans increasingly used the internet when planning their trips. One quarter (24%) booked at least one product online. In this context, the focus is not so much on package trips but on individual parts of travels. Thus, 12% of Germans bought a flight ticket online in 2007, 11% booked a hotel room and …
Import prices up by 2.3 percent 27. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, in October 2007 the import price index was 2.3 percent higher than in October of the previous year. The increase is, however, mainly a consequence of the so-called basic effect. Compared to September 2007 the import price index increased by 0.7% in October. The export price index, on the …
European conference on innovation and clusters 23. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot On December 11th 2007 the Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum in co-operation with the ministry of economics in Baden-Wurttemberg will host an international conference dealing with the issues of innovation and clusters. The objective of the conference is to bring together regional and European decision makers from the fields of innovation and technology transfer.
Stagnating order receipt by German architects 23. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot The situation of German architects continues to be worrying. According to survey findings by the ifo-Institut the business situation of freelance architects did not change at the beginning of the 3rd quarter 2007 as compared to the 2nd one, but is nevertheless still far from being good.
TARGET2 launched for payments in Europe 21. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the German Bundesbank, on Monday a new European payment system called TARGET2 organised by European central banks in order to facilitate payments within Europe was successfully launched. The new system for the transfer of large amounts and for urgent transfers will gradually replacethe decentralized old TARGET system which has been operating since 1999.
Record year for online news portals 20. November 2007 by Thomas Jannot News portals were among the biggest winners in the German-speaking internet world. These were able to increase their site visits significantly as compared to previous years. This was demonstrated by a long-term study carried out by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). According to BITKOM, the most visited internet news …