Many construction sites for government: Medium -sized companies gives Germany bad grades

Too much bureaucracy, too high energy costs, gaps in digitization: Medium -sized companies mostly gave Germany to poor grades. In a Forsa survey for Commerzbank, Europe’s largest economy ends up in a list of business nations in 9th place – behind Italy and Vietnam.

Just ten percent of the 1,525 companies that were interviewed between mid -November and mid -February rate the framework conditions in Germany as “very good” or “good”. They consider 60 percent to be “satisfactory” or “sufficient”, almost a third (29 percent) calls them “poor” or “insufficient”.

A large majority of 71 percent of the companies surveyed across all industries also believe that the quality seal “Made in Germany” has lost significant importance. The hopes in the economy are great that a new federal government will provide positive impulses.

Customs dispute also contains

The customs dispute with the USA provides uncertainty. According to the information, many companies are increasingly looking for new sales markets for their products and planning to increase their prices to compensate for higher customs costs.

According to a survey by the DZ Bank, companies in metal, automotive and mechanical engineering, in particular, expect particularly strong negative effects of US tariffs and counter-tariffs to their business. A total of 15 percent of the 1,007 medium -sized companies in this survey are directly affected by higher US tariffs, 50 percent fear that they will be affected indirectly – for example by increases in price by suppliers.

Caring about EU-counter-tariffs

Possible counter-tariffs from the European Union could touch medium-sized companies even more than the US tariffs: If they are introduced, almost a third (29 percent) of companies expose, for example, with higher purchasing prices. 46 percent fear effects on suppliers.

The data for the DZ-Bank survey was collected in March-even before US President Donald Trump presented his XXL customs package. However, it was already known that the USA would raise 25 percent inches on the import of cars and steel, for example. At the beginning of April, Trump threatened the EU with additional surcharges of 20 percent on imports to the USA. These are currently exposed. The EU has also put planned counter-tariffs on US goods on hold for the time being and hopes for a negotiating solution.