ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

Development more stable in second half of the year. In the year 2009 the global economy shrank for the first time since 1946. According to provisional figures of the Euroframe Group, a combination of leading European economic research institutes, the economic output in 2009 declined by one per cent. In the first half of the year both private consumption and gross investments declined significantly. Industry responded to this drop in demand by massively cutting back on production worldwide. World trade showed a strong decline and exports and imports were reduced substantially. On the whole, the international trading volume in 2009 dropped by 11.9 (previous year: +2.8) per cent. The high interest add-ons for loans granted as well as banks’ increasing reluctance to grant credits in the first place exacerbated the negative economic situation.

Signs of stabilization could not be observed until the second half of 2009. The dramatic decline in world trade slowed down. Industrial production capacities were gradually increased again in order to service the slowly recovering demand. Interest rates in credit markets also normalized gradually and the investment propensity increased. In the third quarter of 2009 the economic output grew slightly but could not compensate for the negative development in the first half of the year. The low point of the recession was overcome in the fall, according to leading economic research institutes, but they still classify this recovery as unstable.

The economic development in our sales and production markets could not avoid being drawn into the negative trend of the international economy. All these markets showed declining economic development. Gross domestic product In addition to the economic development, the long, hard winter during early 2009 in Germany and in the rest of Europe impaired general building construction, which in turn had weakening effects on the assembly of solar modules at the beginning of the year.