Retailing (east):
Disappointing business situation

Also in eastern Germany the improvement of business conditions of the last two months has reversed again, and the six-month outlook was assessed less pessimistically. Here the enterprises no longer plan to limit order activity as frequently, especially since inventory pressure was less than in the previous month. As to sale prices, the eastern German firms expect stability in the coming months, but their western German colleagues see a likelihood of falling prices. In both survey panels, the number of participants that expect staff reductions decreased, but in the east it was as large as in the previous year (23% on balance) and in the west even higher (19%).