The German consumer price index increased by 0.7% in April 2009 as compared to April last year, but remained unchanged as compared to March this year. The reason for this annual increase is prices for heating oil and fuels which have been increasing since January this year. Currently these results are based on data made available by six Federal German states. Final results will be known on May 12th, according to the Federal Statistical Office. more…

Demand for LCD and plasma TV sets is increasing despite the current economic crisis. This year the number of flat screen TVs sold is estimated to reach 7.1 million units which would be an increase by 7.4% as compared to last year. CRT-TVs have almost completely lost their importance. Sales of CRT-TVs halved to 300,000 units. These are findings presented by the EITO market research institute. Turnover generated by TV-sets, however, is going to fall given that the average price of a flat screen TV is probably going to fall from 820 to 747 Euros this year which would be a drop by 9 %. Prices for plasma screens are predicted to fall from on average 975 to 934 Euros and those for LCD-TVs from 800 to 725 Euros. more…

Prices for imported goods were down by on average 7.1% in March this year as compared to March 2008. This was the biggest annual drop since April 1987. In February and January this year the annual changes had been -6.4 % and -5.4 % respectively. As compared to February 2009 the import price index fell by 0.4 %. This big annual drop in import prices is mainly due to plummeting prices for energy (-28.5 %). more…

The German market for digital games grew by 16.9% to 2.68 billion Euros in turnover in 2008 which was about 4 percent more than predicted. In 2007 and 2008 this market had already grown by 29 % and 11 % respectively. For 2009 the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOMS) predict moderate growth. According to BITKOM, new game ideas are more and more appealing to women and older people as well. more…

Amazon serves about 16.7 million German internet purchasers which is more than any other online purchase and trading platform. eBay ranks second this year. Amazon recently improved the variety of its product range and lowered its freight charges. This was the finding of the “Online Shopping Survey” (OSS) carried out by the association for research on consumption (GfK). more…

On a global scale 39% of businesses expect business results at the end of 2009 to be worse than those in 2008. In Europe even 45 % of all businesses think so. In view of these grim prospects more than one third of all businesses have frozen in wages and salaries at the level of the year 2008. If wages and salaries are cut, they are cut for all employees at any hierarchy level. This is a finding of the “Global reward in a downturn” study by the international Hay Group consultancy firm. more…

The number of apprenticeship contract fell significantly in the year 2008. According to preliminary calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, in the year 2008 about 610,800 new apprenticeship contracts were closed in Germany which were 2.1% or 13,100 contracts less than in the year 2007. In particular in the east of Germany and Berlin the number of new apprenticeship contracts fell significantly. more…

The prime cost index for industrial goods was down by 0.5% as compared to March 2008 which is the most significant change since September 2002. In comparison with February 2009, the index fell by 0.7%. This reduction is mainly due to the development in prices for intermediate inputs for which prices fell by 3.9% as compared to March last year and by 0.9% as compared to February this year. more…

Only a small number of businesses have so far been denied, reduced or withdrawn loans by their banks. Therefore, according to researchers from the association on research on consumption (GfK), the feared credit problems have so far hardly emerged. In the course of a recent survey among 510 businesses it was revealed that a large majority of businesses has so far not suffered from the often invoked loan crisis. more…

According to the ifo institute, demand to the construction industry in Germany is going to grow by just 0.5% in real terms each year over the next ten years. The ifo experts believe that the current government programmes will not give significant new stimulus to the economy, given that demand for residential buildings but also for office buildings is expected to be permanently weak. Experts even think that the German construction industry is going to shrink this year given that all the government programmes are expected to show effect only from 2010. more…