Wholesaling (Germany):
Restrictive order plans

In wholesaling the business climate index fell, after having risen slightly in the previous month. The surveyed firms assessed both their present situation and their outlook more unfavourably. They evaluated their turnover vis-à-vis the previous year as clearly worse and inventories are increasingly regarded as too large. For this reason they plan to exercise more caution when placing new orders. The clouding of the business climate is attributable to consumer goods wholesaling. In contrast, in industrial B2B the climate is stable. In the consumer goods field, the business climate deteriorated especially for wholesalers of consumer durables. The survey participants here reported a considerably more unfavourable business situation. Also with regard to the business outlook they are more sceptical. Complaints about too high stock levels increased strongly. The firms plan to reduce their order volumes for new product considerably in this sector.