Wholesaling (Germany):
Expansive employment plans

The business situation in wholesaling worsened clearly; in consumer durables it was only appraised as barely satisfactory. Firms no longer assess the business outlook as confidently as they did in the preceding two months, which is also ex-pressed in their less expansive ordering plans. In the consumer goods area prices are expected to weaken in the coming months, but in industrial B2B trade the re-sponses point to a continued expansion. The stock of personnel will be increased. Also eastern German wholesalers classified their current situation less positively than in the previous month. in contrast to the federal average, their business ex-pectations reflect a little more confidence, however. Although inventory pressure has been reduced, an expansion of orders is no longer planned so frequently. The rise in prices is expected to continue, however.