Number of construction permits down by 25% in 2007 14. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot In the period from January to December 2007 the construction of 182.300 flats was permitted in Germany. This corresponds to a decrease of 26.3% or 65.200 construction permits than in the year 2006. This was revealed through recent calculations by the Federal Statistical Office. Statistic experts assume that this sharp decline is in particular due …
Less car purchases in Germany 14. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot Private households in Germany spent 1.2% more on consumption in the year 2007. In 2006 growth rate of private consumption was 2.3%. According to the Federal Statistical Office, private consumption without taking into account car purchases by private households increased by 1.8% in the year 2007 (2006: +2.1%). Therefore, the only small increase in private …
Online shoppers seek advice over the internet 13. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot About 70% of people who buy over the internet base their purchase decisions on the opinion of other people. They choose products on the basis of opinions and assessments in forums and customer areas of online shops. 54% of online buyers make their buying decisions according to high sale ranks and positive user assessments. Only …
Wholesale prices increase by 6.0 percent 13. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, wholesale prices increased by 6.0% in February 2008 in comparison with February last year. In January and December the annual price change rates had been +6.6% and +5.1% respectively. Compared to January 2008 the whole sale price index fell by 0.2%.
10 percent more imports and exports in January 12. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot In January 2008 84.4 billion Euros worth of goods were exported from Germany. The value of imported goods amounted to 67.3 billion Euros. These preliminary figures were published by the Federal Statistical Office. In comparison with the figures of January last year exports and imports increased by 9% and 10.2% respectively.
6 percent more overnight stays in January 12. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, there were 19.6 million overnight stays registered in January 2008 which is a plus of 6% as compared to January last year. This increase relates to both overnight stays by German and foreign tourists (16.6 and 3.0 million respectively). In comparison with December 2007 the number of overnight stays …
CeBIT exhibitors return with full order books 12. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot This year’s CeBIT was an outstanding success. Visitors and exhibitors are filled with enthusiasm. This is the conclusion drawn by the Deutsche Messe AG after the end of the CeBIT in Hannover. In fact the number of visitors was 3% higher than last year.
Laptops for 150 Euros available from summer onwards? 12. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot The editorial office of the Capital Online magazine disseminates that the new “Atom” mini chip by Intel was going to cost less than 35 Euros. This information is said to have leaked out from business circles to the Capital journalists during the CeBIT computer fair. As a consequence the Capital experts assume that from summer …
Order volume in industry down in January 11. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to preliminary data by the Federal Statistical Office, the volume of orders received by industry fell by 1.5% in January after adjustments for price and season. In December 2007 the order intake had already diminished by 1.1%. Even though the amount of major orders was once more above average in January, it fell short …
Key interest rate unchanged at 4.0 percent 7. March 2008 by Thomas Jannot At its meeting the council of the European Central Bank (ECB) yesterday decided to leave the three most important key interest rates at 4.00%, 5.00% and 3.00% respectively.