Germany’s DIHK: 50% of firms had to partly or completely shut business during lockdown

German DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce is out with its latest business sentiment survey, with the key takeaways noted below.

60% of firms are suffering from reduced demand, 43% facing cancelled orders.

More than a third of firms have had to slash investments.

Almost half of all German companies had to partly or completely stop business during lockdown.

A quarter of these companies re-started business when lockdown was eased at end of April.

Of the businesses that are currently still closed, 80% expect to be able to re-start operations immediately or within next two weeks.

80% of companies see decline in revenues in full year - industry, construction and services all affected, with a quarter expecting a drop of more than 50%.

More than a third of companies only expect to return to their previous business level in 2021 at the earliest, 1 in 20 firms never expects to get back to that level.

One third of restaurants and almost half of travel firms fear insolvency.