Economic environment and business performance

Macroeconomic conditions

Global economic conditions continued to be plagued by uncertainty in the first half of 2013. As a result, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slightly lowered its forecast for 2013 as a whole. Whereas positive economic data strengthened expectations of a sustained recovery for the US economy, there was a decline in the pace of growth in the BRIC countries. Western Europe remained in a mild recession. The crisis in the euro zone is far from over, and this is also slowing the speed of growth in the rest of the world—particularly in the other EU countries and eastern Europe. While the German economy has been stagnating, economic output in crisis-hit Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain has fallen more sharply.

As well as GDP growth, global demand for machinery and equipment is largely driven by willingness to invest and world trade volumes. According to economic research institutes, these indicators have risen slightly higher in the year to date than in the same period last year. A modest rise looks probable for 2013 as a whole, although the average underlying pace for the year is likely to be slow.

Sectoral conditions

Level of orders

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