The KfW-ifo SME Barometer

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the German economy, employing 31.7 million people — a good 70% of the workforce — and generating an annual domestic turnover of around EUR 4,100 billion (Schwartz 2019). For analyses of the current economic developments of SMEs, the ifo Institute, in cooperation with KfW Research, has developed evaluations of the monthly ifo Business Survey based on company size in the sectors manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trade, and the service sector. The main indicator of these evaluations is a business climate for Germany’s SMEs, which also allows comparisons to larger companies and the development of the overall economy. Together with other results, this indicator is published monthly by KfW Research as the “KfW-ifo SME Barometer” (KfW Research 2022b).