High-tech and IT companies in Germany are not yet feeling the pinch from the current financial crisis, but nearly 40 percent of them see declining sales in the coming months, the BITKOM industry federation said on Wednesday.
"The German high-tech market is currently still largely stable," BITKOM chief August-Wilhelm Scheer said in a statement.
According to a new BITKOM survey of 301 firms, the results of which were published Wednesday, 86 percent of IT companies said they have not yet felt any direct fall-out from the financial crisis.
"Only 13 percent say that sales or orders are lower than previously expected," the statement said.
However, while 60 percent of firms continued to forecast no negative effects in the coming month, 39 percent predicted that sales would come in lower than they had been pencilling in prior to the crisis.
BITKOM found that around one third of companies anticipated a deterioration in financing conditions in the coming months, as banks became more cautious about lending money.
Like other key sectors recently, the IT and high-tech sector added its voice to calls for state intervention to shore up business.
"Now is the opportunity to make long-needed investments in the high-tech infrastructure of the federal government, the regional states and the municipalities. The public sector can provide additional impulses in this way," BITKOM chief Scheer said.
