Services (Germany):
Renewed less sceptical expectations

The business climate in the German service sector brightened somewhat in February. The improvement is due solely to the appraisals of future business: the six-month business outlook is regarded less sceptically than in January. On the other hand, the firms are more dissatisfied with their current business situation than they were in the previous month. The tendency towards staff reductions weakened somewhat for the service providers. In transportation and logistics the business situation deteriorated again. The firms appraised demand as clearly below the previous-year level and order stocks have once again been assessed more negatively. However, with regard to the six-month business outlook, scepticism decreased somewhat. Nevertheless, on the whole the business climate worsened perceptibly. In enterprise and public-relations consulting the business climate clouded over somewhat. However, the survey participants expect demand to increase somewhat in the coming months and plan to increase staff to some extent. The EDP service providers also plan to take on additional employees, but they are a little more reserved than they were in past surveys. On the whole, the EDP firms assessed their business situation as good and reckon with only on a slight worsening in the next six months.