The competitive position of industry has suffered little despite a more expensive euro

According to the results of a January telephone survey that the Ifo Institute carried out for the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche among 1000 enterprises in January, the competitive position of German firms has not yet suffered much damage from a higher euro exchange rate. The improvement that had been observed by the enterprises in the second half of 2002 seems to be past, however. With a further increasing euro exchange rate, the negative impact on competitiveness may gain the upper hand. It is then to be feared that exports, the mainstay of economic growth, will grow much less noticeably.