Download - Volksbank AG

THE BANK FOR CORPORATES
20
Management discussion
Taking over
social responsibility
Cyclical upswing and
stable medium-term
perspectives expected in
lending business
information technology and communication, make working for the Investkredit Group attractive. This
may also be the reason for the minimal fluctuation within the Investkredit Group.
SPONSORING. The Investkredit specialist banking group accepts its social responsibility. In the reporting
year Investkredit Bank AG supported selected projects of more than 50 well-known institutions
mainly in the social area. Furthermore, the art projects “Artists and Refugees“ of the Susret
Association and the Association “Friends of the House of Artists in Gugging“ were also sponsored. The
total sum of financial aid provided for social activities by the Investkredit Group amounted to more than
EUR 100,000. In the field of environmental management Kommunalkredit voluntarily fulfils the
obligation of continuous improvement concerning environmental protection (chiefly concerning business
trips, the consumption of paper and energy as well as product ecology). In November the
KOMMUNALIS prize, Kommunalkredit’s social prize for local authorities, was awarded at an evening gala.
OUTLOOK FOR 2002.
MARKET DEVELOPMENT. According to all available indicators the economic slump in Austria will
persist through the second quarter of 2002. Then economic researchers expect an upswing allowing
for real growth rates of about +3% by the end of the year. With 1.2% of the GDP, however, the
annual average of the growth rate is not expected to be significantly higher than in 2001 according to
the time pattern. Essential incentives are to be provided by the recovery of the US economy and by
easing the pressure on households and corporates due to the decline in energy prices. The business
situation of the Austrian manufacturing industry is expected to improve considerably in the second
half of the year. Due to significantly declining commodity prices (-7.0%) real production will expand
only by about 1.5% on an annual average similar to 2001. Not before the year 2003, however, is a
continued recovery of the industrial sector expected
and only if foreign demand increases
again (+7.3% real exports), which would push
production output to real +5.0%, thus higher
than in the late 1990s. In view of these business
expectations, a moderate development of
the credit business is expected in the short term.
With the predicted cyclical upswing for the second
half of 2002, Investkredit expects a recovery
in the area of investments. Low financing
costs and the relatively lower self-financing ratio
of corporates favour loan financings. Against
the background of the EU enlargement and the
increasing globalisation, significant modernisation
and rationalisation requirements still need
to be met by business sector. According to the
latest WIFO (Austrian Institute of Economic
Research) investment survey, companies
report plans for investments amounting to
EUR 7.31 bn for the whole year. The test shows
that there will be increases especially in the car
industry, the production of non-durable consumer
goods and in the coal, iron and steel sector,
with a value of 6.2% the investment ratio
might again reach the level of 2000, an economic
boom year.
“The more
man is
planning,
the harder
he will
be hit by
coincidence.“
FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT