Companies increase investment in e-business 29. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot German companies will significantly increase their investment in electronic business in 2007. More than one third of companies will investment more than in 2006 and almost 60% want to investment as much as last year. These findings were revealed by the “eBusiness-Barometer 2007/2008” survey which was presented yesterday in Berlin. This year companies invest particularly …
Consumer prices virtually unchanged in August 29. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to provisional figures by the Federal Statistical Office consumer prices will probably increase by 1.9% in August 2007 as compared to August last year which is the same increase already withnesses in July. As compared to July 2007 prices slightly fell by 0.1% in August.
Sustainable economic development expected for Central and Eastern Europe 29. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot Financial market experts compiling the CEE economic indicator (Central and Eastern Europe) do not expect any changes with regard to the economic development in these regions over the next six months. The experts expect the economy to develop positively there. For Austria, however, future prospects are rather negative, even though the current economic situation there …
Ten product classes account for fifty percent of retail sale turnover 28. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, the German retail trade (motor vehicles excluded) generated almost half of its turnover (45%) in just ten out of 59 product classes. Most turnover was generated in the field of pharmaceutical products (8.3% of total turnover), followed by ladies´ wear (5.9%) and foodstuffs (5.7%).
SMEs have IT problems fixed by permanent service partners 28. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot Given that just eight percent of all small companies have an in-house IT department, the majority of companies depend on external support even in the case of minor software problems or hardware deficiencies. The TechConsult market research company recently wanted to find out who is charged by small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) with solving such …
Fifty percent of Germans take pictures digitally 27. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot The market for digital photography is booming. Over the last year the percentage of German households possessing digital cameras increased from 49 to 52%. 43.4 million Germans above the age of ten, that is 58% of the entire German population, use digital cameras. On average, every German takes 55 photos per month and 7.3 million …
Moderate rise in import prices 25. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, the import price index was up by 0.4% in July 2007 as compared to July last year. Thus, the increase was smaller than in June (+1.3%) and May (+0.6%) this year. The export price index was up by 1.6% in July this year as compared to July 2006.
Reform of immigration rules could solve problem of skills shortage 24. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot The German Association of Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) thinks that Germany needs highly qualified immigrants due to a skills shortage. According to current estimates by BITKOM there are between 25.000 and 28.000 job vacancies in the IT sector. Furthermore, other sectors ranging from mechanical engineering to trade and financial institutions look for …
Unemployment set to fall to 3.4 million in 2008 23. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to current labour market projections by the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) the number of unemployed people is to fall to about 3.4 million on average in 2008. This would be a drop by 360.000 as compared to 2007. At the same time the IAB expects the German economy to grow by 2.7 …
Global economy continues upward trend 21. August 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the ifo Institute in Munich the global economic climate has significantly brightened up in the third quarter of 2007. This applies to both the current economic situation as well as to the six-months economic outlook. The ifo economic index increased by seven to 113.6 points hitting a seven-year record high. These findings of …