Services: Slight Cooling of the Business Climate

In the service sector, companies continued to be extremely satisfied with their current business situation. Although the indicator for the current business situation weakened somewhat compared to the previous month, it remains at a very high level. Every second survey participant still described the situation as good, on balance. In addition, companies continue to expect a positive business performance for the coming six months, albeit slightly less frequently than most recently. The climate indicator fell slightly for the third time in succession but is still clearly in positive territory. The current sales trend also remains much better than the long-term average, but the dominance of positive reports also declined here. According to the survey responses, the companies are still increasing their workforce and intend to continue to do so in the coming months. Assessments of order backlogs did not reach the record level of the previous month but remain at an excellent level. The optimistic assessments of the demand situation remained almost unchanged. The responses indicate that price increases are also planned in the coming months.