Wholesaling (Germany):
Exceptionally friendly business climate

In wholesaling the positive assessments of the business situation clearly gained ground, with the situation in industrial B2B still considerably more favourably than in the consumer goods area. With regard to future business developments, the firms expressed increased confidence and revised their order plans upwards, although they more frequently felt their inventories to be too large. The responses indicate a continuation of price increases in the coming months, especially in industrial B2B. Firms also intend to expand hiring. After the weakening in the previous month the business situation in eastern German wholesaling improved slightly. This is attributable to more confident expectations whereas the current situation was again assessed somewhat less positively. Since inventories have been reduced to some extent, the firms plan to place more orders. Prices should continue to rise.