As of: March 5, 2024, 4:32 p.m
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A metal plate is processed in a medium-sized company.
The mood among German medium-sized businesses remains poor, but is at least not falling any further.
© Hendrik Schmidt / dpa
The business climate of German medium-sized businesses is still at an unmistakable low, but the decline has at least stopped.
The future promises improvement.
Berlin - The mood among small and medium-sized companies in Germany is stagnating at a low level.
In February, “the business climate was practically as bad” as in the previous month, the state development bank KfW said on Tuesday in its SME barometer drawn up with the Munich Ifo Institute.
The assessment of the situation and expectations have hardly changed.
“The decline in the business climate practically came to a standstill in February, but the mood among medium-sized companies remains deep in the basement,” said KfW chief economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib.
“This means that there is still a gap between sentiment and development.” The current levels of business climate have only been seen in the past during significant recessions.
The German economy should grow again
“Especially in the manufacturing sector, there are hardly any signs of an economic trend reversal,” emphasized Köhler-Geib.
However, there are at least signs of the expected, consumption-driven recovery among service providers in the latest economic surveys.
Sharply rising real wages are likely to boost private consumption and contribute to the expected economic growth of 0.3 percent for 2024.
According to KfW forecasts, German gross domestic product is expected to increase by 1.2 percent next year.
(Reuters, lf)