XIAMEN FIT IMPORT & EXPORT CO., LTD.
Economic situation in Germany: Waiting for upturn 
click rate:2284 issue time:2006-06-22 13:51
Stagnation at a low level 鈥� is how the Verband
des deutschen Steinmetzhandwerks describes the
result of the latest trend survey conducted in
the German natural stone industry in spring 2003.

Although the business situation index in the
stonemasonry trade has risen by 3.6 points to
36.1 compared with the autumn survey, it is still
well below the comparable value of 44.8 points
for the previous year. In the preceding surveys
of the last five years, the business situation
index had always reached a value between 50 and
57.

The share of company owners describing the
current business situation as good or
satisfactory has at least risen from 56 % to 60 %
since autumn 2002. However, the tendency to
invest has dropped from almost 19 % to just under
17 % at the same time.

Of those willing to invest, about 32.6 % of the
firms (multiple answers possible) are planning to
invest in expansion, just under 61 % in
replacements and almost 22 % in rationalization
measures.

The total turnover in the stonemasonry trade
continually decreased from 2.12 milliard euro to
1.97 milliard euro (-6.5 %) between 1994 and
2002. The decline in many companies is even
greater, as the number of firms increased from
5,403 to 5,576 in the same period.