Retailing (Germany):
Stable business climate

The business situation in retailing improved marginally, on average. In food and beverages, however, the situation was not judged as favourably as in the previous month, and in the automotive sector the negative responses held the balance. Slightly increased scepticism was expresses regarding the business outlook. Since inventory pressure has only eased slightly, order plans call for more restric-tions especially for non-durable consumer goods. The responses of the survey participants indicate price increases in the coming months, especially for food and beverages. As in the previous month, only 6% of the retail firms, on balance, ex-pect a drop of employee numbers; one year ago it was 19%. In eastern German retailing the negative appraisals of the business situation gained a slight edge. For the next months the firms fear further declining tenden-cies and plan to exercise more caution in ordering. Nevertheless, they see scope for upward price adjustments in the near future.