MittelstandsWiki

According to Mr. Anton F. Börner, who is the chairman of the German Association of wholesale and retail trade (BGA), Germany is the world´s leading exporting country in the year 2008. Furthermore, turnover generated through exports is expected to exceed the barrier of on trillion Euros for the first time ever. “Even though in November and December exports and imports decreased, they did not drop very much”, says Mr. Börner with regard to the current economic crisis. For the year 2008 as a whole the BGA expects exports to grow by about 4%. +++

In the year 2008 consumer prices in Germany increased as much as for the last time 14 years ago. As compared to the year 2007, inflation amounted to 2.6% in 2008, according to the Federal Statistical Office. In December this year inflation reached 1.1% in comparison with the same month in 2007. Since November this year consumer prices have increased by 0.3% after they had fallen by 0.5% in the period from October to November this year. +++

The Friedrich-Naumann foundation has carried out a new study on economic freedom in the German Federal states. It turned out that Bavaria once again is the region which offers most economic freedom. Baden-Württemberg comes second in this respect. In the Federal landers in the east of Germany economic freedom is more restricted than in the west, in particular due to the fact that public authorities interfere more in the economy in the east than in the west of Germany. +++

About 60% of German companies procure the materials, components and goods needed for their respective production processes online over the internet. Only the Swedes are even more active in this respect: in Sweden 72% of all companies employing at least ten people carry out online procurement. These figures were calculated by the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) on the basis of data for 2007 provided by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat). +++