MittelstandsWiki

As was expected the US Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) today in the course of its rotational meeting lowered the US key interest rate by another 50 basis points to 3.00%. Thus, the current rate is as low as it was for the last time in the middle of the year 2005. This latest lowering was preceded by another dramatic lowering by 75 basis points following an extraordinary meeting last week (we reported on this). The Federal Reserve today did not rule out further reductions of the key interest rate.

In the year 2007 the domain market, i.e. the trade in internet addresses for homepages and websites grew at a breathtaking pace. This was confirmed by a yearly study carried out by the Sedo domain trading network. Thus, the trade volume increased by 60% last year. While in the year 2006 the money spent on domains amounted to 30.7 million Euros, this sum increased to more than 49 million in 2007. The market study in question is available for download from the internet. +++

In the year 2006 investment in innovation by German businesses increased significantly by 6%. In total, investment amounted to 115.5 billion Euros. For 2007 companies aimed at spending 5.5% more on innovation. For 2008, however, the increase planned is relatively moderate and amounts to about 2%. This was revealed by a study carried out by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), the Fraunhofer Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI) as well as the infa-Institute for applied social sciences. +++

In the year 2007 music downloads already accounted for about 15 percent of global music sales. In 2006, this percentage had been 11%. These findings were published in the “Digital Music Report 2008” by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). According to this report, the turnover in music downloads increased by 40% to 2.9 billion dollars. Music lovers can use the services of about 500 legal online shops worldwide which sold about 1.7 billion songs last year. +++

According to the WSI Institute which is part of the union-friendly Hans-Böckler foundation, 20 of the 27 EU member states have statutory minimum wages. 12 of these countries have increased the minimum wage since the beginning of 2008. +++