tax second-quarter profit from tourism surged to 100 million euros (123 million dollars) from 53 million euros a year earlier, beating analysts' forecasts. With data prepared by the OCED and International Monetary Fund showing Germany as having replaced the U.S. last year as the world's leading export nation, German business has stood to benefit from the economic upturn that begun to take shape last year. Exports now represent about a third of economic activity in Germany where fast-paced globalization has transformed several of the nation's leading companies into major international players. Only 19 per cent of total orders for electronics giant Siemens are derived from the group's domestic German market. Last month Siemens reported a 29 per cent jump in quarterly profit, adding that it expected to beat its full-year earnings target after sales gained for the first time in two years. "The improvement in the broader macroeconomic environment is now arriving in our industry,'' said Siemens' chief executive Heinrich von Pierer in releasing the group's results. Stabilization of the euro has also helped boost corporate earnings. The common currency's strong rise earlier this year has resulted in many companies driving forward with the cost-cutting programmes they launched in recent years in a bid to shore up international competitiveness. But corporate Germany's campaign to lower labour costs has done little to help ease the nation's high unemployment. Data released last week showing the jobless rate at 10.5 per cent in July. Emboldened by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's far-reaching economic reform plans as well as high unemployment and a slump in the fortunes of Germany's once influential trade union movement, the nation's industry has now moved to cut labour costs by rolling back the 35- hour working week and introducing longer working hours. Leading retailer KarstadtQuelle has become the latest company to join the growing list of firms pushing employees to extend working hours as a way of cutting labour costs. This follows recent landmark deals hammered out by trans-Atlantic carmaker DaimlerChrysler and Siemens extending the working hours without a commensurate pay rise.
