Economic situation: medium-sized companies are calling for a reduction in bureaucracy

According to medium-sized companies, “excessive bureaucracy” in particular is making Germany increasingly unattractive as a location. In the latest economic survey conducted by the SME Association, the demand for a reduction in bureaucracy and reporting requirements was by far the top priority on the list: 92.6 percent of participants from 54 association groups believe that the federal government must address this issue in particular in order to improve the economic conditions in this country improve.

From the perspective of the survey participants, the second most important task for politicians is to invest more in education, infrastructure and digitalization – 59.3 percent were in favor of this. This is followed by the desire for targeted tax cuts (38.9 percent). In this case, participants could choose up to three of the given answer options.

A lot of criticism of the traffic light’s economic policy course

Overall, the current economic policy course of the traffic light coalition does not fare well in the survey: none of those surveyed think the decisions of the SPD, Greens and FDP are “completely right”. 7.4 percent rate the federal government’s economic policy as “satisfactory”, while just under a third (29.6 percent) find the course “mixed”. The group of dissatisfied people is significantly larger: 42.6 percent consider the federal government’s current economic policy course to be “misguided” and 18.5 percent consider it “completely wrong.” 1.9 percent of participants did not provide any information on this question.

The Mittelstandsverbund represents the interests of around 230,000 medium-sized companies, which are organized in 310 association groups. According to the information, 54 association groups with a total of around 41,000 affiliated companies from 17 industries took part in the survey between December 19, 2023 and January 12, 2024.