KfW-ifo SME Barometer January 2025

At the start of 2025, confidence among Germany’s small and medium-sized enterprises rose again for the first time since April of last year. This is little more than a drop in the ocean, however, after what has now been a five-year stagnation across the broad economy and given the increasingly loud complaints about loss in international competitiveness. This is all the more the case as the minor improvement in business confidence was due exclusively to better situation assessments and was almost solely driven by service providers, while the mood among large export-oriented industrial firms is increasingly worsening.

KfW-ifo SME Barometer January 2025(PDF, 233 KB, accessible)