Corporate profits in Germany have grown at the fastest rate in four years thanks to the global recovery and a concerted drive to cut costs in the world's leading export nation. Carmakers BMW and DaimlerChrysler, chemicals giant BASF, sporting goods manufacturer Adidas and electronics group Siemens were among those who recently unveiled sparkling new profit results. "I am confident of our ability to perform significantly better than we'd originally anticipated at the beginning of the year," said Adidas chief Herbert Hainer after the world's second-biggest sporting-goods manufacturer raised its full-year earnings forecast from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. Analysts have already upgraded several leading German stocks as business confidence grows and evidence emerges that three years of economic stagnation have come to an end. The International Brokers Estimate System (Ibes) predicts that the 30 blue-chip members of the German stock market's leading DAX index will report a 54 per cent jump in profits this year with earnings growing at more than 20 per cent next year and profits surpassing the last corporate boom year in 2000. Consequently, Ibes expects both the DAX and the Eurostoxx of 50 leading European shares to outpace the US's S&P 500 index this year and next. Profits of the DAX-30 rose 36 per cent last year. As a further sign that an economic upswing has been taking hold in Germany, Europe's biggest travel group, German-based TUI AG, said last week it expects earnings in its key tourism business to jump by 70 per cent this year. --more 1457 Local Time 1157 GMT
