Corporate Magazine 2012 - Boehringer Ingelheim

GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT 2012BUSINESS ANDOPERATING ENVIRONMENTEconomic environmentThe global economy continued to lose momentum in the2012 calendar year. At 3.0%, the growth rate was downon the previous year’s figure of 3.8%. One crucial factorhere was the sovereign debt and banking crisis in theeurozone, which triggered considerable uncertainty inthe global economy. Significant cuts in the public andprivate sectors of the industrialised nations had a lastingnegative impact on their economic development. Fallingimport demand in the industrialised nations, generallyhigh levels of uncertainty and country-specific factorsalso led to an economic slowdown in the emerging anddeveloping countries, where growth totalled 5.1% in 2012,down 0.8 percentage points on the previous year. At 2.2%,the US economy achieved robust growth compared withthe eurozone, helping to stabilise the global economyalong with Japan and emerging countries, such as Chinaand India.Economic growth of 2.4% is expected for 2013. Twoopposing effects come into play here. Growth in the USAand in Japan is expected to be weaker than in 2012. Incontrast, the emerging countries have the opportunity togenerate higher growth rates in 2013 by using their monetaryand fiscal room for manoeuvre. For the emergingand developing countries, the World Bank forecastsgrowth of 5.5%. The progression of the crisis in the eurozonecontinues to be regarded as a key factor in the developmentof the global ecoomy. A 1.3% increase in realgross domestic product is expected for the industrialisednations.The economy of the eurozone was in recession in 2012(– 0.4%) and showed a mixed picture, as in previousyears. The decline in economic output in some southernEuropean countries was exacerbated by the sovereigndebt crisis, restrictive fiscal policy, a difficult labour marketsituation and high capital outflows. The uncertaintysurrounding the further progression of the crisis causedmany companies to delay their investment projects orshelve them entirely. In contrast, foreign trade had a bolsteringeffect. For the 2013 financial year, the WorldBank forecasts a 0.1% drop in real gross domestic productand therefore expects another year of recession inthe eurozone. The weak external environment and de-Net sales by business (in millions of EUR)Prescription Medicines201211,4052011 10,096Consumer Health Care20121,5052011 1,396Pharma Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Production2012 1622011 178Biopharmaceuticals2012 5492011 519Animal Health2012 1,0622011 97620Boehringer Ingelheim annual report 2012