The General Mood in The German Furniture Industry Still Remains Rather Pessimistic

Despite a significant turnover increase in April, which compensated the declines of the first quarter at least to a certain extent, the general mood in the German furniture industry still remains rather pessimistic. In the business survey of the ifo Institute in Munich as reported by the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM) , the index rating remained negative at -11 points in June, following a rating of -15 points in May. Business expectations for the next six months did not improve in June. The evaluation remains as in May with -15 points. In June 2012 the economic situation had been evaluated with +17 points. The medium-term business expectations at that time were, however, already quite negative at -11 points. These estimations continued to decrease until October. In December they improved again, in January they actually reflected a slight increase. Since then, with the exception of April, they have declined consistently. The positive evaluation of the current economic situation from November 2010 to January 2013, with the exception of a slight dip in August 2012, also slipped increasingly further into the negative zone from February to May. In June a change in this trend could be observed for the first time.