by Dr Herman Pilz
The downward spiral in the German hotel and restaurant trade continues unabated. According to data just released by the German Department of Statistics, this trend has shown no sign of reversal for almost six years
with a new negative record set almost monthly since November 2001. In September 2007 turnover was down 3% nominally and 5.7% in real terms, compared to September 2006. All three branches of the trade tracked by the department posted signs of contraction: hotels (-1.1% nominal, -3.9% real), caterers (-2.9% nominal) and restaurants (-4.5% nominal, -7.3% real). In the first nine months of 2007, the restaurant trade, which suffered the greatest losses compared to last year, was down again, -0.3% nominal and -2.8% real.
