Wholesaling (Germany):
Upward price pressure weakens

In wholesaling the business climate has brightened. The present situation is still assessed slightly positively and the outlook has been appraised less sceptically. Behind the stable assessment of inventories there are two countervailing movement: wholesalers in the consumer goods area report a more favourable situation while the industrial B2B wholesalers assess their situation less favourably than in the previous month. If we look, in consumer goods wholesaling, at the business activity of consumer durables, however, a more unfavourable evaluation of the business situation emerges. Within industrial B2B the less favourable assessment of inventories came from wholesalers of capital goods. Both sectors - consumer goods wholesaling and industrial B2B - have in common that the survey participants plan price increases considerably less frequently than in the previous month, indicting that rising prices in wholesaling could weaken.