Latest Press Releases

The electronics, engineering and chemicals industries are the three most innovative in Germany. More than 70 per cent of businesses in these sectors have introduced new products and processes. In the manufacturing industry, 61 per cent of businesses are considered to be innovative.

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The European investment fund market is still far from being a real domestic market. Obstacles in law and taxation mean that investors in the European market face much higher costs than they do, for example, in the US market.

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The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany increased slightly by +0.3 points in May and now stands at +18.7 points versus +18.4 points in the previous month.

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Biotechnology is key in the 21st century. The fact that it is now harder for new biotechnology firms to establish themselves in Germany than it was several years ago, is therefore quite justifiably a cause for concern. It is now more difficult to find providers of venture capital to finance biotechnological business ideas.

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The enormous share price losses seen in the last 18 months have jeopardised many listed companies in Germany. Their shares can currently be bought up at very low prices.

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Service providers in the information industry expect the prospects of trainees in this sector to worsen as a result of poor economic conditions. Despite the newly implemented governmental programme which aims to encourage training, 24 per cent of service providers in the information industry expect the number of trainees to fall over the course of the next three years.

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The annual rate of growth in turnover in the German IT-related services sector declined to 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2003 from 2.1 percent in the previous quarter. The poor economic development in this sector becomes especially apparent when compared to the first quarter of 2002: Turnover, income, demand and personnel have declined; only the downward pressure on prices has abated slightly compared to the start of 2002.

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Unlike large firms, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to spend ever decreasing amounts on the development of new products and services, as well as on rationalisation measures. Following a rise in expenditure in 1998, levels of expenditure on innovation by SMEs in the industrial sector have again fallen. Levels of spending on innovation by SMEs in the service sector have remained steady since the mid-nineties.

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The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany increased slightly by +0.7 points compared with the previous month's result and now stands at +18.4 points versus +17.7 points in March. However, separate analyses of the responses over the survey period reveal a strong influence of the Iraq war.

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According to German companies, 2002 shall be characterised by declining innovation budgets. Companies in the manufacturing industry, for example, expect innovation spending to fall from 60.6 billion euro in 2001, to 58.7 billion euro in 2002. This, however, seems to be a temporary decline; manufacturing firms are already expecting to see a significant rise in innovation spending within the year.

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