Turnover generated in EU retail trade down 7. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot Turnover generated in retail trade in the Eurozone and EU27 fell by 0.6% and 1.2% respectively in February this year as compared to January following +0.1% and +0.7% respectively in January as compared to December last year. In comparison with February 2008 the changes were -4.0% and -3.4% respectively. The above figures are estimates by …
Key interest rates lowered moderately to new record low 3. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot After repeated statements by the president of the European Central Bank (EZB), Jean-Claude Trichet, about the economy sliding even further and the EZB still seeing potential for interest rates to be lowered even further, most experts expected another significant lowering of interest rates by the ECB. However, the key interest rate was now lowered by …
Unemployment at 8.5 percent in Eurozone 3. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot Unemployment in the Eurozone (EZ16) amounted to 8.5% (in adjusted for season figures) in February this year as compared to 8.3% in January 2009. One year earlier, in February 2008, unemployment stood at just 7.2%. In the EU27 the rate of unemployment was 7.9% in February this year following 7.7 % in January this year …
Retail trade lost 5.3% in turnover in February 2. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot Turnover generated in the German retail trade fell by 5.3% in February as compared to February last year, according to estimates by the Federal Statistical Office. On January this year turnover increased by 0.2% in nominal terms and fell by 0.2% in real terms in February.
Order intake to German mechanical engineering halved since last year 1. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot According to the German Association for Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA), the order intake to the German mechanical and plant engineering was down by 49% (in real terms) in February as compared to February last year. Particularly hit was the business with foreign clients demand by whom fell by 50% while domestic demand decreased by …
Trademark protection facilitated in the EU 1. April 2009 by Thomas Jannot The European Patent and Trademark Office is going to reduce its fees significantly. The registration procedure is to be facilitated as well, according to the EU Commission.
Music downloads onto mobile phones as popular as never before in Germany 31. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot Entire music songs downloaded onto mobile phones are as popular as never before. In 2008 Germans downloaded about 6 million songs onto their mobile phones paying 9 million Euros for them. This was revealed in the course of a market study carried out by the association for research on consumption (GfK) on behalf of BITKOM. …
Consumer prices up by 0.5 percent in March 30. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot According to first calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, consumer prices increased by 0.5% in March 2009 as compared to the respective month last year. In February 2009 the annual increase had been +1.0 %. Thus, the inflation rate in March has been the smallest since July 1999. In the monthly comparison with February prices …
Number of new businesses down in 2008 27. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot The recession significantly affected the number of new businesses set up in 2008 which according to size and legal form are particularly important for the German economy. As compared to 2007 the number of these businesses newly set up fell by 2.9 % in 2008. The number of small enterprises also decreased by -7.4% following …
Manufacturers of embedded systems defy economic crisis 26. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot There are some branches of industry which due to their particularly high innovational power grow even in times of economic crisis or which at least keep their business volume. One such industry is that of specialised microcomputers integrated in certain products, so-called “embedded systems”. A current survey carried out jointly by the German Association for …