Hope after two years: Is German SMEs succeed in turning the trend?

For the first time after two years of almost continuous shrinkage, the downward trend in German middle class seems to be broken. In May, sales in small and medium -sized companies (SMEs) increased by 2.8 percent after a very weak month of the previous year. This is shown by the DATEV Mittelstandsindex, which the FAZ publishes exclusively in advance. The signs are stabilized, the economists from Datev comment. There is hope for an economic trend reversal.

The DATEV Mittelstandsindex confirms the improvement of the general business climate, which has become apparent in corporate surveys in recent months. The trend now works into the ranks of the small and medium -sized companies. The sales of medium -sized and small companies therefore increased by 6.4 and 3.9 percent in May. Only among the small companies with up to ten employees stagnated sales. The economic dry spell of the small companies has not yet been overcome, said Robert Mayr, the CEO of DATEV eG.

In some core areas of the economy, however, recovery has already gained a foothold. According to DATEV chief host Timm Bönke, a trend reversal is achieved in agriculture and mining, financial services and health and social affairs. So far, a stabilization has been seen in the processing trade and in large parts of the service sector, as well as in the construction industry and in stores. According to Bönke's analysis, industries that usually progress, like energy generation and logistics, do not show a clear growth trend after Bönke's analysis.

The recovery progresses very differently regionally. Despite the overall economic weakness, there is a strong growth in sales of small and medium -sized companies in some regions. In Germany, the districts of Straubing, Frankfurt an der Oder as well as Bremerhaven and the Emsland are leading.

This emerges from a DATEV analysis for the sales development of SMEs in the first quarter of this year. After that, for example, sales in SMEs rose by 10.6 percent and in Frankfurt/or 7.1 percent.

The relevant resettings or extensions of large companies are often decisive for regional developments. Mittelstand in Straubing, for example, benefited, according to DATEV, through a resettlement by the service provider Amazon. “While some counties benefit through targeted investments, stable industries or other location advantages, others are still fighting with structural challenges,” said Mayr. Last counties such as Emden were particularly affected with a sales minus of the small and medium -sized companies of 14.1 percent. At the beginning of the year, the uncertainty on the Volkswagenwerk there put on the beginning of the year.

The special quality of the DATEV data is that the IT service provider can access the anonymized sales tax advance registrations of its clients for the tax advisory professions. Formerly than other economic indicators, the medium -sized company index describes the economic development of small and medium -sized companies based on hard business data. In the beginning of economic relaxation, these resilient and hard signs of life are particularly valuable from the economy.

They support the grasping expectation that the economy reached the ground in the winter half -year and that after two years of recession can grow a little this year. So far, this has so far been proven primarily by surveys that are considered important, but are considered soft. So the IFO business climate brightened in the past five months. The order intake in the processing industry also can expect moderate relaxation.

On Monday, the shopping manager survey for Germany indicated slight growth. The Composite Index, which summarizes surveys among service providers and in industry, reached 50.4 points in June. This survey is created by S&P Global for the Hamburg Commercial Bank.

The improvement of the medium -sized company index has so far been shown exclusively in sales. With an increase of 4.1 percent, wage and salary growth continues to exceed the general inflation development. The companies notice this as an increasing cost burden on the factor. At the same time, employment reduction in medium -sized companies continues. In May, the employment of SMEs dropped by 1.4 percent compared to the same month in April. The employment development usually only recovered far after an economic turning point.