Current and regional market data are rare for real estate investors, especially regarding the office market. The newly developed office market indicator (BIBIX) of the IW Köln will remedy this drawback.

In 2008, total annual labor costs per full-time worker amounted to 56,090 euro in the West German industry. In East Germany the figure was 37,140 euro, one third less than in West Germany.

Between 2004 and mid-2008, the German manufacturing sector faced significant additional costs due to rising prices for natural resources. Spiraling energy prices and an oil price as high as 150 US-dollars per barrel put many companies under considerable pressure.

The world economy is in the midst of the worst recession since 60 years. The breakdown of exports has reached Germany as well. Germany’s real GDP will decrease by 4½ percent this year and grow by ½ percent in 2010.

The export success of the CEE countries Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic is occasionally regarded as a major threat to industrialized countries like Germany.