Key European interest rate unchanged at 3.75% 13. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot The European Central Bank has left the key interest unchanged at 3.75 percent. Experts think that the ECB´s economists currently do not dispose of sufficient information in order to change the interest rate on a strategically sound basis.
ifo forecasts continuing economic upswing 12. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot In 2006 the economy in the Eurozone strongly expanded pushed by domestic demand as well as a trade surplus. According to the Munich based ifo-Institut economic prospects continue being promising in the near future. In real terms GDP is forecast to rise by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2007 and by 0.6% in both …
Car purchases increased by 6.1% in Germany in 2006 12. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot Compared to the year 2005 car purchases on a value basis increased by 6.1% in Germany in 2006. According to the Federal Statistical Office this increase is one of the strongest in the past decade. The increase is due to more purchases by private households (+ 8.5%). Purchases by companies, however, fell by 1.2%.
60.000 vacancies for engineers and increasing salaries 12. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot On the occasion of the Hannover Show the Monster online job bourse counted the number of vacancies available, and for their internet portal alone they established a number of 60.000 vacancies for engineers. In many engineer fields the demand for engineers already strongly exceeds the supply of qualified staff which, according to Mr. Dr. Willi …
Good times for German steel producers 11. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot Thanks to China steel is all the rage. The German steel industry fares as well as it has not for quite a long time. Last year crude steel production amounted to 47.2 million tons in Germany which is the highest figure since re-unification. The Essen based Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI) estimates that 2007 and …
German exports up by almost 11 percent in February 10. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to preliminary figures by the Federal Statistical Office there were exports from Germany amounting to 77.6 billion Euros in February 2007 and imports to the value of 63.4 billion Euros. This corresponds to a 10.9% increase as compared to February 2006. Compared to January 2007 exports increased by 1.9% and imports by 5.6%.
450.000 jobs likely to be created in the service industry 10. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot The recent report on the situation of the German service industry filed by the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) presents impressing figures and confirms the close correlation between order intake, investment and labour market. The current business climate is the best in 15 years, says Martin Wansleben who is the DIHK …
New search function available on our website 9. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot 3828 articles have so far been published on MittelstandsWiki and its journals. All these are stored in a database as well as 533 postings in English. So far there were separate search functions for each journal. As of today there is a combined search being available.
Rental software increasingly popular 5. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot According to the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), an ever increasing number of companies use hired software instead of purchased one. This system of software for rent is called Application Service Providing (ASP) and has been pushed for years by major software manufacturers. By introducing an interactive online test called …
6.6 percent less company insolvencies 5. April 2007 by Thomas Jannot The number of company insolvencies further dropped in January. According to the Federal Statistical Office, compared with January 2006 the decline amounted to as much as 6.6%. Expressed in absolute figures there were 2416 company insolvencies in January 2007. On the other hand, in the same period the figure of private insolvencies increased by 27.5% …