Leasing: Worsened expectations force business climate to new lows

According to the most recent results of the Ifo Business Survey for Leasing, the business climate index fell in the fourth quarter of 2002 to the lowest level since the beginning of the survey. This was primarily due to clearly less confident business expectations, whereas judgements of the current business situation improved slightly. Every fifth leasing enterprise evaluated the situation as favourable, 69% as satisfactory, and 12% considered the current business to be poor. Two of three leasing companies complained of constraints to their business activity, with 43% of the survey participants listing constraints from legal conditions and taxes in first place.