Manufacturing (east):
Business climate partly clouded

On the other hand, in east Germany the unfavourable assessments of the business situation increased, as the order situation deteriorated. Reports on excess inventories, however, played only a subordinate role. With cautious optimism the enterprises appraised the outlook for the coming half year; this also holds with respect to future export chances. An expansion in production is not yet planned, however. Whereas in west Germany the enterprises see some scope for increasing their prices in the next months, the survey participants in east Germany expect prices to keep falling. Staff reductions will continue, but the number of firms that expect dismissals has decreased slightly in both survey regions.