Page 12 - Hoftex Annual Report 2018 EN

Letter to Shareholders Supervisory Board Report
Group Management Report Consolidated Financial Statements Annexes
To further expand our technology expertise in nonwoven production, the Hoftex Group decided to build a technology centre for stitch-bonded fabrics at its Mittweida location. Concentrating product and process development in this location will help shorten development times and rapidly transfer the insights gained there to series production in the various locations.
A total of EUR 1.4 million (prior year: EUR 1.8 million) was spent on research and development during the fiscal year just ended. A total of 28 staff are employed in this division. Research and deve- lopment activities are performed exclusively at Hoftex Group subsidiaries.
Although the global economy began to stabilise in 2017 and virtually all major national economies re- ported upward trends for the first time in several years, the economy only grew by a rate of 3.6 % in
2018, thus narrowly missing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) projections.
5% 4.1%
4% 3.4% 3.4%
3.4% 3.4%
3.2% 3.7%
3.6%
3% 2% 1%
2011 2012 2013
Source: Chart supplied by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, based on annual figures published by the IMF *) Estimate Fig. 2: Growth in global gross domestic product (GDP) from 2011 to 2018
0%
In the advanced economies, dynamics remained moderate – industrialised economies reported 2.2 % growth. However, compared to 2017 the picture was somewhat less balanced at the geographic level. Growth in the Eurozone failed to keep pace with the previous year and slowed to 1.8 % in 2018 (prior year: 2.4 %): Germany, Italy and France in particular showed weaker performance compared to the previous year. In contrast, the US economy showed clear growth (2.9 %) over the prior year’s rate (2.2 %) as it benefited from powerful economic policy measures.
2. Economic report
2.1. Macroeconomic conditions
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018*
The emerging and developing countries demonstrated similar performance. The Chinese economy slowed slightly in 2018 with a growth rate of 6.6 %, falling just short of the previous year (2017: 6.9 %): The two main drivers for this were the ongoing trade conflict with the US and stricter financial regu- lations. Unlike China, the Indian economy did experience an accelerated growth rate of 7.1 % (prior year: 6.7 %): The Association of South-East Asian Nations(ASEAN) grew by 5.2 %, just below ex- pectations (2017: 5.3 %): Russia continued the recovery that began in 2016 with 2.3 % growth in 2018 (prior year: 1.5 %): The Latin American countries were unable to continue their recovery at the previous year’s pace as rates cooled (from 1.3 % in the prior year to 1.0 % in 2018).
YEAR-ON-YEAR GDP GROWTH
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