DMV-ifo Marketing Barometer February 2019

The mood in the marketing sector remains tight.

After the marketing sector had already started the new year extremely pessimistically, in some cases with massive losses in January, there was hardly any improvement in February. Those responsible assessed the business situation slightly better than in the previous month (+0.4 points).

Against the background of a loss of 3.6 points in business expectations, however, this could hardly dampen the further decline in the DMV-ifo business climate. On average, the DMV-ifo business climate deteriorated by 1.7 points in February, the fifth deterioration in a row. The situation is similar for the German economy as a whole. With a decline of 0.8 points, the ifo business climate index had to cope with the sixth loss in a row in February.

Against the background of the downward trend in the business climate in the marketing sector, it is interesting to take a closer look at the other indicators. Contrary to what the general trend would suggest, February even brings some improvements here. For example, the respondents were more satisfied with their order backlog (+5.6 points) compared to the previous month and also assessed the development of the number of employees and sales in the coming months more positively again (+0.7 / +11.0 points). However, these observations must take into account the fact that all these indicators had to cope with some drastic losses in the previous month. In view of this, the improvements in the valuation of the order backlog and the hiring plans in particular should be seen more as recoveries and less as improvements. In February, the price expectations indicator lost ground and its balance fell by 3.2 points. For the first time in three months, an increasing number of respondents expect prices to fall again.

The whole evaluation you find here. (only available in German)

Link to previous evaluations.