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DIHK survey continues to show major problems

Gastronomy in Berlin

Naturally, the financial situation is tense, especially in the economic reports, which have long suffered from restrictions.



(Photo: dpa)



Berlin German companies are only slowly recovering from the consequences of the corona pandemic. Many are coping with the crisis, but 43 percent of companies still rate their own financing situation as problematic. In the fall of last year it was 49 percent.

This is shown by a special evaluation of the current economic survey of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), which is available to the Handelsblatt. More than 27,000 companies from all industries and sizes took part in the survey in April.

Almost every fourth company (24 percent) complains about a decline in equity, and around every fifth (19 percent) reports liquidity bottlenecks. Five percent of those surveyed see themselves threatened with bankruptcy – as many as at the beginning of this year.

“Many companies, especially in the industries that have been severely affected by the pandemic, such as tourism or clothing retail, are weakened and in some cases emaciated after the long phase of economic restrictions,” says Andreas Bley, chief economist of the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks. “Other companies, many of them in industry or in the construction sector, produce at high capacity and are financially robust.”

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Naturally, the financial situation is tense, especially in the economic reports that have long suffered from Corona restrictions or continue to suffer. According to their own information in the DIHK survey, a good quarter of travel agents are threatened with bankruptcy.

Recovery especially in the area of ​​leasing and rental

In the catering, accommodation and leisure industries, almost every fifth company is facing the end. In the hospitality industry, two out of three companies complain about falling equity, in the leisure industry it is every second.

Many company-related service providers from the areas of leasing and rental, trade fair and congress management, and management consultancy assess their financial situation better than they did at the beginning of the year. The recovery in the industry is making itself felt here. A good quarter of retailers still complain of liquidity bottlenecks and a third of a decline in equity.

The bigger the company, the fewer the financial problems

From a macroeconomic perspective, financial worries decrease with the size of the company. While only every second (48 percent) of the companies with fewer than 20 employees describe their own financial situation as unproblematic, in the case of companies with 200 to 1000 employees the figure is three out of four (76 percent). Smaller companies have more difficult access to debt capital and are more likely to experience bad debts than larger ones.

Of the respondents who see obstacles in the financing of their businesses, more than a third have problems providing collateral for the procurement of outside capital or raising their own share of the financing. Of the companies with a decline in equity, as many as 61 percent have difficulties with their own financing and 51 percent with the necessary collateral.

In the industrial sector, a quarter of companies that have increased their investment plans are still faced with a problematic financial situation. The high level of borrowed capital and the difficult access to borrowed capital in themselves are particularly stressful.

In addition to the steep rise in energy and raw material prices, this could “develop into an additional stumbling block for a sustainable economic upswing,” according to the survey.

More: Follow the latest developments in our news blog


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