Ifo business climate index still high 25. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to forecasts by the Munich based ifo-Institute the economic prospects for Germany are still promising. This opinion is based on the ifo business climate industrial index for May. Even though the companies questioned consider their current business situations to be slightly less favorable than in April this year, they are nevertheless optimistic with regard …
1.2 billion people worldwide use the internet 25. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot Over a period of five years the online community has doubled. In 2007 alone the global number of internet users is expected to rise from 1.13 to 1.23 billion people. Back in 2002 there were just about 600 million people using the internet. By the end of 2010 the figure of 1.5 billion users will …
Interactive tool on German foreign trade available online 25. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot A very sophisticated but also easy to use interactive tool on German foreign trade was recently made available online by the Federal Statistical Office. The interactive tool can currently be viewed and used with the Internet Explorer and the Firefox browser. It features official statistical data which are presented in the form of dynamic diagrams. …
Strong growth of German biometrics market 23. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot The German market for biometrics will grow by more than 200 percent in the years to come. This is a finding of a study by Roland Berger. From about 120 million Euros in the year 2006 turnover will presumably grow to 300 million Euros by the year 2010. The most important technology remains that of …
German young people are the best online-shoppers 23. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot Almost fifty percent of young Germans (48%) aged between 16 and 24 shop online. In no other European country is online shopping so popular as with young Germans. In the list of most frequent online-shoppers Germans are followed by the Swedes (45%) and the Danes (41%). The EU average is 24 percent. Online shopping is …
European trademark protection will be cheaper in future 21. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot At the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Trade in Alicante in Spain it is possible to apply for trademarks and design patents for goods and services which guarantee their holders trademark protection in the entire EU. However, so far fees were relatively high. Therefore, in today´s session of the EU council on competivity in …
EU wants to punish the employment of illegal immigrants more severely 21. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot The EU Commission is determined to take stronger action against the employment of illegal immigrants in future. A draft proposal includes the possibilty of punishing companies employing illegal immigrants. According to the Commission, fellow members should not forget that the prospect of finding work is one of the facts attracting illegal immigrants.
Taxes in Europe database online 18. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot Companies which have to be informed about the tax systems of other EU member states are invited to use a brand new information tool called »Taxes in Europe« made available by the European Commission which went online a few days ago. The database contains information on about 500 different types of taxes, on topics such …
German executive officers receive record salaries 18. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot Executive officers in German companies with up to 100 employees earn 274.000 Euros per year and thus receive the highest salaries in Europe. For comparison: In the UK CEOs in this category earn up to 202.000 Euros, in Sweden 153.000 Euros, 145.000 in Italy and just 131.000 Euros in Ireland where this group of executives …
Lack of engineers costs 3.5 billion Euros 17. May 2007 by Thomas Jannot A survey by the Institute for the German Economy in Cologne (IW) showed that one in six companies employing engineers had problems in staffing vacant jobs for engineers in the year 2006. In total there was 48.000 such vacancies which could not be staffed. The damage to the German economy caused by this situation is …