FRANKFURT, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The business sentiment of Germany's wholesale sector has sunk to a new low and structural reforms are needed to prevent more bankruptcies and job losses in the sector, the country's industry body said on Tuesday at its annual press conference.
According to a survey published by the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), the wholesale sector is expected to grow slightly by 0.7 percent this year. "That's closer to stagnation than to growth," said BGA in a press release on Tuesday.
The BGA climate indicator, which reflects the current business sentiment based on the actual business situation and business expectations, stood at 70.6 points at the beginning of the year, well below the 100-point threshold that separates negative and positive trends, according to BGA.
The indicator, which is as low as it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, sends a clear message that wholesale companies in Germany "are overwhelmed by the economic situation, and they no longer have any buffers", BGA President Dirk Jandura warned at the press conference.
Jandura urged the German government to make structural reforms and provide relief to the sector to avert a deeper crisis. "The economic situation of the German wholesale sector is dire. If the political framework for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) doesn't finally change, we must expect even more bankruptcies and even more job losses."
More than half of the wholesale companies in Germany reported declines in sales and profits in 2025 as the wholesale industry was mired in a recession that started in 2023.
Over 2,000 wholesale companies have been closed since the beginning of 2023, according to the BGA.
