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Ifo index will soon show self

2021-10-19T05:34:26.019Z


The self-employed and small companies felt disadvantaged in the corona crisis. According to SPIEGEL information, the Ifo Institute is now upgrading such companies: It will include them in its business climate index from November.


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Ifo survey leader Klaus Wohlrabe, Jimdo founder Matthias Henze

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Jimdo

According to information from SPIEGEL, the Ifo Institute will soon also be surveying self-employed people and small businesses for its monthly business climate index.

Interested companies can register on a website of the Ifo Institute and will then be included in the index from November.

"We see it as our task that the media understand and classify current economic and political events," says Klaus Wohlrabe, head of the surveys at the Ifo Institute.

"The group of self-employed and micro-entrepreneurs is no longer allowed to stand outside."

Small businesses are companies with fewer than 10 employees.

The information provided by small businesses is weighted proportionally in the Ifo business climate index.

Their turnover plays a role on the one hand, and the industry in which they operate on the other.

The automotive industry, for example, has a much higher share in the overall economic value added than the textile industry - and accordingly has more weight in the index.

There is no limit to the number of self-employed who can take part in the survey.

The Ifo Institute hopes that there will be a lively participation so that in future it will also be able to provide detailed information on the business climate among self-employed people and small businesses in its reports.

Ifo Institute wanted to avoid competition

The rethinking at the Ifo Institute goes back to an action by the Jimdo company.

It operates modular websites and has many self-employed and small businesses as customers.

During the corona crisis, Jimdo carried out some surveys among small businesses and found that they sometimes assessed their business climate very differently than the larger companies surveyed by the Ifo Institute.

While the Ifo index rose significantly again in April 2021, for example, the “Jimdo index” for micro-firms was clearly in the red.

The Ifo Institute discovered the index and offered Jimdo to include the micro-businesses in its business climate index in the future.

Ultimately, the institute also wanted to avoid creating a competing product.

At Jimdo we are happy about the development.

"For the first time ever, the interests and needs of the self-employed and small businesses are becoming visible," says company boss Matthias Henze.

Hopefully, small companies would now be given more consideration in the political and social discussion.

500 billion euros in annual sales

80 percent of all companies in Germany are micro-enterprises.

The approximately 2.1 million companies employ a total of 5.7 million people.

Nonetheless, the self-employed and small businesses regularly feel disadvantaged in the political debate.

During the corona pandemic, many of these companies complained that they had not received enough support from the state quickly and comprehensively.

The Ifo business climate is a highly regarded indicator of economic development in Germany.

The barometer is published monthly and has so far been based on information from around 9,000 medium-sized and large companies, whose economic weight is seen as decisive for the overall economic development.

Germany Small businesses turn over around 500 billion euros per year and thus also contribute their part to economic value creation.

"Self-employed and small companies are also immensely important for a better economy of tomorrow," says Henze.

"We cannot afford to fail to understand them, as was sometimes the case during the corona pandemic."

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-10-19

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