Energy worries of SMEs in Germany eases – Survey

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA I Wednesday, April 19, 2023

BERLIN – Germany’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say their energy worries are easing after fears last year that rising costs could put them out of business, a survey showed.

In the poll conducted by the Germany’s KfW state development bank in March, 31% of the firms said that energy costs at the current level would have little or no financial impact on their operations. In September of last year, 13% of the SMEs expressed this sentiment.

According to the survey, only 9% reported being overwhelmed by financial concerns.

For half of the 2,485 companies surveyed, energy costs represented an additional financial burden, but they believed they could weather the costs, even in the long term.

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“The strong commitment of SMEs to saving energy has shown visible success,” KfW Chief Economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib told dpa. “Still high energy costs are currently being coped with by many more companies than was the case six months ago.”

Three quarters of the companies with a turnover of up to €500 million ($549 million) annually have, according to their own telling, reduced their energy consumption since the start of the Ukraine war, for example by lowering the room temperature or practising fuel-efficient driving techniques.

In addition, there are investments to reduce consumption, such as thermal insulation on buildings or energy savings through new technologies at factories.

“The turbulent developments on the energy price markets have calmed down,” Köhler-Geib said of the skyrocketing costs experienced in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There are still a number of companies whose energy-cost burden is very high, Köhler-Geib said, citing SMEs in the construction industry and manufacturing sector.