DIHK survey: High costs for energy and raw materials remain the greatest business risk
Taxi industry suffers from increased labor costs
© AFP
German companies continue to rank energy and commodity prices as the greatest business risk. According to an economic survey by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) published in Berlin on Monday, the shortage of skilled workers is increasingly coming to the fore. 65 percent of the companies therefore see a risk in the high costs of energy or raw materials and thus five percentage points less than at the beginning of the year.
62 percent indicated a shortage of skilled workers as a risk, according to the DIHK that was two percentage points more and thus a maximum value that had only been reached once in autumn 2018. In the service sector, a shortage of skilled workers was even named as the greatest risk. “In view of the aging of society, the lack of qualified workers will remain one of the main structural challenges for companies in the future,” explained DIHK executive board member Ilja Nothnagel.
Labor costs also became more of a focus for companies. 53 percent named this as a business risk, an increase of four percentage points since the beginning of the year. According to the survey, this was particularly true for sectors in which below-average wages are paid and which lost a lot of staff in the pandemic: for example for the catering trade with 73 percent or the taxi trade with 67 percent.
Overall, the economy in Germany is still treading water, the DIHK explained. “There are still no signs of a broad upswing,” explained Nothnagel. The outlook for the next twelve months remains “overall gloomy – especially since incoming orders are noticeably decreasing on the demand side.” The DIHK therefore continues to assume zero growth this year.
As at the beginning of the year, 34 percent of the companies rated their current situation as good and 51 percent as satisfactory. 15 percent of the companies described their situation as bad. The balance of the “good” and “bad” answers is 19 points, slightly below the long-term average of 21, as it was said.
A deterioration in the situation was reported recently, especially from the trade. The DIHK explained that this reflected the restrained consumer mood due to inflation, supply chain disruptions that had not yet been completely overcome and the cost pressure due to high purchase prices.
Business expectations have brightened somewhat, but are still very subdued, it said. The difference between good and bad expectations has increased from minus 14 points to minus five points – the long-term average was plus five. More companies are still pessimistic than optimistic.
“The reason for the slight improvement is that energy prices have stabilized and even fallen recently,” explained Nothnagel. In addition, the supply bottlenecks decreased. He called for the location conditions to be strengthened through new impetus for private investment and infrastructure expansion. Planning processes need to be accelerated. The DIHK interviewed around 21,000 companies nationwide for the survey.
2023-05-22 07:47:53
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