Economic Outlook

Global Economy

The Russian war against Ukraine has fundamentally changed the geopolitical landscape and has had impact on the global economy. We therefore expect continuing high prices for sources of energy and certain raw materials in the EMLA region, higher inflation, as well as slower global economic growth. In addition, the zero-COVID strategy in China and the resulting lockdowns put the brakes on economic performance in the first half of 2022. The restrictions in China in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus hold risks for the global economy, albeit not to the same extent as in the first half of 2022.

Compared to the outlook we published in the Annual Report 2021, we still anticipate slight growth in the global economy, but now with a less robust increase in economic performance of 2.9%. Due to the aforementioned effects, the estimates were also reduced for all three regions for the year 2022.

Main Customer Industries

In the automotive, construction, electrical, electronics, and household appliances industry, we continue to expect positive growth in the year 2022, with the strongest rise in the automotive industry. Although this will probably be considerably below the outlook presented in the Annual Report 2021, it will exceed the outlook presented in the Half-Year Financial Report 2022 (previously: 6.0%). Following strong growth in the previous year, a decline of 1.1% is anticipated for the furniture industry.