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A further indication of Germany’s competitiveness is the constant high GDP share of the manufacturing industry over the past years. While other countries had to relocate production to other countries, Germany was able to keep a large part of the production at home. The German automotive industry is as a good example; the number of cars produced has remained relatively stable at around 5 million cars per year since 1999. However, the value of each car has increased significantly. Germany remains a market leader in many sub segments of the mechanical engineering and equipment manufacturing industry. The good overall economic situation was clearly reflected in the earnings of a lot of German companies. Car manufacturers have reported record sales, in particular driven by exports into booming emerging markets. In China the purchase of Audi cars has now surpassed that of Germany. Industrial and chemical companies were also able to increase sales and profits significantly. The stock price of German companies followed this positive earnings development. The ongoing uncertainty about a solution for the European sovereign debt crisis, stronger increased raw material prices as well as a possible headwind by a stronger euro are currently weighing on the stock market and could result in an higher volatility, especially during the summer months. Several economic indicators, like the IFO business climate index, could also get weaker and thus signal a slight slowdown of the economy in the second half of 2011. Therefore we have a conservative outlook for the DAX at the end of the year of 7600 to 7800 points. The mid-term outlook remains nevertheless positive and ideally new all-time highs for the DAX could already be within reach this year.