|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German companies see some hope
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Business sentiment in Germany soured in September for the fourth straight month, although companies said they saw a glimmer of hope for recovery in Europe's biggest economy. The Ifo economic institute's monthly index -- based on a survey of 7,000 companies -- showed the business climate in Germany slid to a reading of 88.2 in September from 88.8 the previous month. That was the lowest level in eight months. The September reading, which was in line with economists' forecasts, indicated a slight improvement in the assessment of present conditions by business leaders. Ifo's current climate index rose to 77.5 from 77.3 in August. However, that optimism was tempered by expectations for the coming six months, which Ifo said remained weak. The institute's business outlook index declined to 99.3 in September from 100.7 in the previous month. The main index reached at high of 107.3 in 1990 and a low of 75.7 in 1982. The Ifo institute maintains that movement in the same direction over three or more consecutive months indicates an economic trend. The German economy has been struggling to recovery after slipping into recession in the middle of 2001 as the global downturn took hold. There are now concerns that the economy will continue its weak recovery for the remainder of the year and possibly into 2003. "We can only hope that we'll narrowly escape recession at the end of this year, but there's no question of an upturn in 2002 -- nothing much is going to happen now,'' Bernd Weidensteiner, an economist at DZ-Bank, told Reuters. At the same time, the narrow re-election of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's centre-left government is expected to slow any moves to reform the country's highly regulated economy. However, the slight improvement in current business sentiment can be attributed to a rebuilding effort following German floods in August, which is expected to boost sectors like the construction industry, which has been suffering since the post-unification boom. "Amid this gloom, there is a chance that the outlook for new orders for rebuilding infrastructure and building after the flood might have improved confidence in the construction sector,'' investment bank UBS Warburg said in a research note. The weaker Ifo survey comes on the heels of the ZEW economic institute's sentiment index, based on a survey of analysts and professional investors, which declined to 39.5 in September -- the lowest level in eight months. The ZEW reading came in much lower than expected.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
