After a slight decline in June, the mood among companies in the German print and media industry improved somewhat in July 2024. The business climate index calculated by the German Printing and Media Industries Federation recorded a seasonally and calendar-adjusted increase of around 2.6 per cent compared to the previous month. At 92.4 points, the index in July was therefore around 3.5 per cent above the previous year’s level.
In July 2024, the decision-makers at printing and media companies surveyed by the ifo Institute again assessed their current business situation as slightly worse than in the previous month. In terms of business expectations for the next six months, the company managers surveyed were more optimistic than in the previous month.
The decline in the seasonally and calendar-adjusted business situation index continued in July and led to a renewed drop to the level at the beginning of 2024. At 71.1% (-3.3 percentage points compared to the previous year), precarious capacity utilisation and the persistently weak order situation caused problems for companies in July. The index fell by 1.1 per cent compared to the previous month and stood at 83.8 points. Compared to the corresponding level of the previous year, there was a decline of 4.4 per cent. The majority (around 52.9 per cent) of respondents rated their company’s current business situation as neutral in July. The proportion of positive business situation assessments (around 6.2 per cent) fell by around 6 percentage points compared to the previous year, while negative assessments (around 40.8 per cent) increased by around 2 percentage points.
As part of the quarterly surveys on obstacles to production, two factors were primarily identified as the cause of production restrictions in July. A total of 68 per cent of companies stated that they were affected by production restrictions. Of these, 54 per cent identified a lack of orders as the primary obstacle to production. This was followed by a shortage of skilled labour at 31 per cent. Although both figures fell compared to the previous year (-8 and -14 percentage points respectively), they are still at a high level. Material bottlenecks are currently not discernible and, with around 2 per cent of responses, represent a minor obstacle.
Expectations regarding the development of the business situation over the next six months were significantly better in July than in June. At 101.8 points, the seasonally and calendar-adjusted index recorded an increase of around 6.6 per cent compared to the previous month and was therefore around 12.5 per cent higher than the corresponding figure for the previous year. This indicates that companies expect the downward trend to weaken further over the next six months and move sideways.
BVDM
The Bundesverband Druck und Medien e. V. (bvdm) is the umbrella organisation of the German printing industry. As an employers’ organisation, political business association and technical trade association, it represents the positions and objectives of the printing industry vis-à-vis politicians, administration, trade unions and the supplier industry. The bvdm is supported by eight regional associations. Internationally, it is organised through its membership of Intergraf and FESPA. The printing industry currently comprises around 6,900 predominantly small and medium-sized companies with more than 110,000 employees subject to social security contributions.
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