Latest Press Releases

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany decreases in August by 3.1 points. The indicator now stands at +45.3 points, compared with +48.4 points in July. In spite of the decline, experts expect a moderate recovery for Germany's economy until the beginning of next year.

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The beginning of the year brought a new investment option for profit-seeking investors in Germany: hedge funds. However, private investors still seem to be wary of these alternative investment products, which, in Germany, were banned from sale until 2003. These are the findings of a current study conducted by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) among 233 financial analysts.

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In the second quarter of 2004, companies using the Internet as a sales channel for serving end customers (business-to-consumer e-commerce, B2C) accounted for almost 40 per cent of the total revenues in the economic sector of IT-related service providers.

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The value of the ZEW-IDI, sentiment indicator for the German IT-related service providers, is 62.6 points in the second quarter of 2004. This value clearly exceeds the value of 55.4 points of the first quarter.

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At today's festive event, the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) will bid farewell to Ernst-O. Schulze, its Director of Business and Administration, who had accompanied the research institute since its founding. In this context, ZEW will also introduce his successor, Thomas Kohl, who will assume his new office on August 1, 2004. Being a long-standing attorney and Deputy Head of Business and Administration, he is very well acquainted with the given circumstances at ZEW.

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The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany increased slightly in July. The indicator now stands at +48.4 points, compared with +47.4 points in June.

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Despite ranging at an already high level, oil prices are not expected to relax durably in the coming years. About 200 energy market experts from energy supply, trading and service companies, as well as from the world of academia were surveyed as part of the ZEW Energy Market Barometer. 62 per cent of them assume that oil prices in Germany will continue to rise over the next five years, whereas only 12 per cent forecast price reductions.

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Despite general consensus that reforms are necessary, there is currently little evidence to suggest that the reform status of Germany is set to change. In discussions concerning the reasons for the rather cautious reform process in Germany, a variety of different reasons are presented.

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Three quarters of the innovative businesses in Germany make use of company suggestion schemes in order to stimulate innovation. After all, high levels of international competition mean that if the generous levels of pay and short working hours in Germany are to be maintained, new and improved products must be constantly released onto the market.

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The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim has awarded the Heinz König Young Scholar Award for the first time. The award comes with a prize money of 5000 Euros and additionally includes the offer to do research at the ZEW for three months. This year, the award is sponsored by the Freudenberg & Co. LP, Weinheim.

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