Tourism fair in Berlin attracted many people 17. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot The Berlin ITB tourism fair defied the current economic crisis. According to the organizers, this year 110,000 expert visitors attended the ITB, 42% were visitors from abroad. In total 180,000 people visited the exhibition halls. Exhibitors were optimistic despite the global economic crisis and satisfied with the results of the exhibition. According to the organizers …
Wholesale trade prices down by 5.7 percent 16. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot Wholesale trade selling prices were down by 5.7 % in February 2009 as compared to February last year and by 0.1% in comparison with January this year. In particular a drop in prices for mineral oil products and solid fuels affected the index of wholesale trade selling prices. Prices for these products fell by 14.8% …
Travel booking over the internet more and more popular in Germany 16. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot About 16.3 million Germans already bought a plain ticket over the internet. About 13 million already booked a hotel room over the internet. Data provided by the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) show how important the internet has become for the tourist industry. Many travellers appreciate the advantages of booking …
Labour costs up by 3.9 percent in fourth quarter 2008 12. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot In the German industry and the service sector hourly labour costs were up by 3.9% in the fourth quarter 2008 as compared to the fourth quarter in 2007. This is the biggest increase since 1997. In comparison with the third quarter 2008 hourly labour costs increased by 1.7% in the fourth quarter after adjustments for …
Drop in incoming by 8.0 percent to German industry 12. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot In January this year the volume of incoming orders to German industry dropped by 8.0% after adjustments for price and season as compared to January 2008. Thus, this shrinking process has even accelerated given that in December 2008 the reduction had been 7.6% as compared to December 2007. The volume of major orders, however, was …
German SMEs pessimistic 11. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot According to the Mittelstandsmonitor 2009 study, the recession has in the meantime also reached German small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) even though less seriously than internationally oriented major companies. Business expectations fell to a historic record low by the end of 2008. Nevertheless, reductions in investment and employment turned out to be relatively moderate. Once …
German exports hit 16-years record low 11. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot The volume of German exports was as small in January this year as 16 years ago for the last time. Germany exported goods to the value of 66.6 billion Euros which was 20.7% less than one year ago. The volume of imports also fell significantly by 12.9% to 58.1 billion Euros. As compared to December …
Chinese consumers affected by global crisis too 11. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot According to the latest “DDMA Chinese Consumer Sentiment Index“ study, in the course of which each month 9600 urban Chinese consumers between 25 and 45 years of age are interviewed in five cities, the global crisis affects spending of Chinese consumers too. Thus, 45% of Chinese consumers reduced their consumption in February 2009 which was …
6.5% less insolvencies in 2008 10. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot For the first time since the introduction of the Insolvency Code in the year 1999 did not only the number of business insolvencies decrease in Germany, but also that of private consumers. According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2008 local courts registered in total 155,202 insolvencies, 98,140 of which of private consumers and 29,291 …
Germans more and more fond of electronic books 9. March 2009 by Thomas Jannot Since Amazon started selling their Kindle e-book reader in den USA, Germans more and more discover electronic books as well. 2.2 million people in Germany are currently planning to buy digital books this year. This was the finding of a survey carried out by the Forsa market research institute.